Spiny gourd (Momordica dioica)

Description

Momordica dioica, commonly known as spiny gourd or spine gourd and also known as bristly balsma pear, prickly carolaho, teasle gourd, kantola, is a species of flowering plant in the gourd family. It is used as a vegetable in all regions of India and some parts in South Asia. It has commercial importance and is exported and used locally. The fruits are cooked with spices,or fried and sometimes eaten with meat or fish. In Sanskrit it is called as karkotaki(कर्कोटकी), karkoti(कर्कोटी). In Tamil it is called as மெழுகுபாகல் mezhuku-pakal, பழுபாகல் pazhu-pakal. In Oriya it is called Kankada. In Assamese it is called bhat-kerela (ভাত কেৰেলা), in Manipuri it is called "Karot" and in Bengali kakrol or ghi korola. In Telugu it is called boda kakara and on the east coast of Andhra it is called aa-kakara-kaya. In Gujarati it is called Kankoda and is cooked the same way Karela is cooked. In Sri Lanka,it is known as 'Thumba' or 'Thumba Karavila'('තුඹ කරවිල ') in Sinhalese. In Marathi it is called 'Kartole' and in Mizo as maitamtawk. In Kannada it is called mada haagala kaayi (ಮಡ ಹಾಗಲಕಾಯಿ or ಸಿಹಿ ಹಾಗಲಕಾಯಿ). In Chhattisgarhi it is called 'Kheksi'. In Myanmar, it is called 'ဟင်းခပေါင်း'. In Konkani, it is called phaagil/phagla. In Nepali (or Nepalese), it is called chattel. Momordica dioica as the average nutritional value per 100 g edible fruit was found to contain 84.1% moisture, 7.7 g carbohydrate, 3.1 g protein, 3.1 g fat, 3.0 g fiber and 1.1 g minerals. It also contained small quantities of essential vitamins like ascorbic acid, carotene, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin (Singh, 2006) It also content protein in the leaves and dry weight of aerial plant parts remained higher in male as compared to female defruited, and monoecious plants (Ghosh,2005) From Momordica dioica fruit isolated 6-methyl tritriacont-50on-28-of and 8- methyl hentracont-3-ene along with the known sterol pleuchiol. Momodicaursenol, an unknown pentacylic triterpene isolated from the seeds, had been identified as urs-12, 18(19)-dien-3 beta-ol on. Phytochemical investigations have revealed the presence of traces of alkaloids and ascorbic acid in fruits. Lectins, b-sitosterol, saponins, glycosides, triterpenes of ursolic acid, hederagenin, oleanolic acid, aspiranosterol, stearic acid, gypsogenin, two novel aliphatic constituents (Ali and Srivastava, 1998, Sadyojatha and Vaidya, 1996, Ghosh et al., 1981, Luo et al., 1998). From the dry root of Momordica dioica isolated three triterpenes and two steroidal compounds. These were alphaspinasterol octadecanonate(I), alphaspinasterol-3-O-beta-Dglucopyranoside(II), 3-O-beta-D-glucuronopyranosyl gypsogenin(III), 3-Obeta-D-glucopyranosyl gypsogenin(IV) and 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl hederagenin(V). Constituent III was a new compound. Fruits, leaves, and tuberous roots of Momordica dioica are used as a folk remedy for diabetes mellitus (DM) in India. The aqueous extract of Momordica dioica fruit possesses very good anti-diabetic activity and is having high margin of safety. It is propagated by underground tubers. It has small leaves, small yellow flowers, it has small, dark green, round or oval fruits. It is dioecious, which means that it has distinct male and female individual organisms, hence its name.