Study On Components Of Bitter Melon Seed And Its Utilization

Momordica charantia L. belongs to Momordica, Cucurbitaceae. Its seed wasrecorded in the Ben Cao Gang Mu (appeared in the early Ming dynasty). Recentresearches showed there were many functional components in bitter melon seed,which played important roles in life activities. In this paper, main components of bitter melon seed were determined;saponin ofbitter melon seed was extracted and purified;30-day-feeding experiment was carriedout to determine the LD50 value of the saponin got from bitter melon seed;itslowering blood sugar function was also studied. Besides, the development of bittermelon seed products was studied. 1. Determination of nutritional components of bitter melon seed By correlative analysis methods, protein, amino-acids, fat, ash, sugar, inorganicelements, vitamin, coarse fiber and fatty acids etc. were determined. The resultsshowed, protein occupied 33.7% of bitter melon seed;the rich structural amino-acidswere 31.28%, in which essential amino-acids amounted to 37%. The heat energy was1264.87KJ/100g. 2. Extraction and analysis of saponin from bitter melon seed Combination of carbinol and ultrasonic was used to extract saponin. Bitter melonseed was firstly distilled to 200 mu , then in a 20ml tube with gag, 20ml carbinol wasadded per 1.0g bitter melon seed. Put the tube in ultrasonic water, 30minutes later, putthe tube in a centrifugal machine. Concentrate the liquid in a vacuum, dry it byfreezing. The coarse saponin was got. Refined saponin was got by big-hole colophony, using 70% alcohol as the lotion. The saponin got from bitter melon seed showed color reaction and foam reaction,which was the typical reaction of saponin;it showed color when added herb aldehyde,upon which character reaction, the quantity of saponin was determined compared withstandard of gen-seng saponin. Dissolved by carbinol, saponin from bitter melon seedwas determined the nature by liquid chromatogram. There was absorption in 202.9nmand 247.5nm, which was the typical character of bitter melon seed saponin.3. Acute toxicity experiment and function testing30-day-feeding experiment showed that comparing with the antitheses, weightsof the mice, increases of the weights, feed ate and utilized had no significantdifference (P>0.05). Also the quantity of red blood cells, white blood cells and generalparameters, viscera indexes had no significant difference (P>0.05);pathologicalhistology showed no abnormity, too.LD50>15,000mg/kg.bw showed that bitter melon seed saponin was in factinnocuous.Saponin from bitter melon seed could lower the blood sugar of nomal mice anddiabetes mice(P<0.05);also, the saponin could also obviously lower TG, TC level ofdiabetes mice(P<0.05).4. Development of bitter melon seedThere were high quality protein and amino-acids and saponin, so, after milling,preparing and equaling, a kind of drink was developed. The prescription was: bittermelon seed 10% (dry);xylitol 4%;emulsification 0.33%, flavor 0.01%, othersproperly added.