Charantin: what is it and what are its benefits?

Bitter melon is a vegetable that everyone is familiar with. It doesn’t taste very good but contains a lot of nutrients that are good for your body. Bitter gourd is rich in protein, vitamins, crude fibers, carotene, and calcium, which can provide the body with essential nutrients. It is also helpful for weight loss and lowering blood sugar. The many healthy functions of bitter melon are attributed to the charantin component. Then what is charantin and what are its functions and effects? Let’s find out together.

What is charantin?

Charantin is a crystalline substance obtained from the ethanol extract of the bitter melon fruit. The bitter melon extract has a good hypoglycemic effect and is known as plant insulin. The bitter melon extract contains steroidal saponins such as charantin, insulin-like peptides, and alkaloids. The immature fruit of bitter melon is more bitter because of the momordica charantin component. Momordica charantin is mainly composed of a variety of triterpenoids, including charantin glycosides a-e, k, l and momardiciusi, iiandiii, and so on.

What are the health benefits of charantin?

Hypoglycemic effect

Some studies found that bitter melon extract not only significantly lower blood sugar levels, but also significantly reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the liver. Further research has shown that extracts from different parts of bitter melon have different hypoglycemic effects. Therefore, it is said that charantin has a significant hypoglycemic effect.

Anti-tumor effect

Scientists have found that bitter gourd has the function of enhancing the body’s immunity and enhancing the body’s anti-tumor function.

Anti-viral effect

Momordica charantin also has anti-leukemia and anti-virus functions. A protein factor extracted from bitter melon can have long-acting or short-acting killing activity on tumor cells.

To sum up, charantin is a substance extracted from bitter melon. Although it does not have the original bitter taste of bitter gourd, its efficacy is better preserved. Momordica charantin is more effective than bitter melon because it is concentrated and can be more easily absorbed by the body. However, it is important to note that patients with hypoglycemia and pregnant & lactating women better not take bitter melon.