Eating bitter melon can help lower blood sugar levels

KARACHI: According to a panel of national and international experts, natural products have been used extensively to treat a wide range of health issues from the beginning of time.

According to the researchers, Momordica charantia (MC), often known as bitter melon, or Karela vegetable, can lower hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) in humans and animals.

Prof Dr M Iqbal Choudhary, Director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, and Coordinator-General, COMSTECH, stated that natural products had been extensively used for the treatment of various health conditions from the beginning of time. Because of the wide variety of chemical contents found in plants, which he called the essential source of therapeutically critical chemical components, a number of new anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and antihypertensive drugs have been developed based on plants.

Dr Ehmke Pohl, a scholar from the UK, said that tuberculosis, resulting from infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was a global epidemic that had killed an estimated 1.5 million people in 2020.

Dr Nessar Ahmed, a scholar from the UK, said that Momordica charantia or bitter melon had antioxidant properties, and some studies have shown that it can reduce hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar) in both animal models and humans. 

Plenary lectures were given on the second day of the "15th International Symposium on Natural Product Chemistry (ISNPC-15)" at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Pakistan. The conference was attended by numerous scholars from 20 nations, including Pakistan.