Medicinal value of bitter melon

Momordica charantia

Bitter melon is named after its taste. The word bitter is not pleasant to the ear, so Cantonese people call it cool melon. Bitter melon is shaped like a tumor, so it is also called a scabby melon; the melon surface is wrinkled, like a lychee, so it is also called a brocade lychee. It is the fruit of the plant bitter melon of the Cucurbitaceae family. Bitter melon mainly contains bitter melon glycosides, protein-like active substances (i.e. α-mospermone, tail-mospermone, MAP30), insulin-like active substances (i.e. polypeptide-P) and various amino acids. Bitter melon has a bitter and cold nature and meridians. It enters the spleen, stomach, heart and liver meridians, and has the effects of clearing away heat and removing heart fire, detoxifying and improving eyesight, replenishing qi and benefiting essence, quenching thirst and relieving heat, and treating carbuncle.

Medicinal value of bitter melon

1. Used for restlessness, thirst, heatstroke, etc.: take 1 fresh bitter gourd, cut off the pulp, slice it, and decoct it in water; for heatstroke: take 1 fresh bitter gourd, cut off the pulp, add tea leaves, then connect them, hang it in a ventilated place to dry, take 6-9 grams each time, decoct it in water or soak it in boiling water instead of tea.

2. For carbuncle and dysentery: mash fresh bitter melon and apply it to the affected area; dysentery: mash fresh bitter melon and drink the juice with boiled water; or mash one fresh bitter melon and squeeze the juice, drink it with boiled water or dry the bitter melon vine and grind it into powder, take 3 grams each time, once every 6 hours, drink it with boiled water.

3. For red eyes or pain caused by liver heat: decoct in water or drink the juice; or take 15g of dried bitter melon and 10g of chrysanthemum, decocted in water.

4. For summer cold, fever, body aches and bitter taste in the mouth: 15g dried bitter gourd, 10g green onion with roots, 6g ginger, decocted in water.

5. For stomachache: burn bitter melon into charcoal and grind into powder, take 1 gram each time, with boiled water, 2-3 times a day. Dosage and usage: 6-15 grams. Decoction, juice or stir-fry; external use, mash and apply. Precautions: People with spleen and stomach deficiency should not eat it raw, as it will cause vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain; pregnant women should not eat it raw.