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Abstract
The antidiabetic activities of bitter melon powders produced with lyophilization/superfine grinding and hot air drying/normal grinding were investigated in vivo for selecting a suitable bitter melon processing procedure. After a five-week treatment, bitter melon lyophilized superfine grinding powder (BLSP) had a higher antidiabetic activity with reducing fasting blood glucose levels from 21.40 to 12.54 mmol/L, the serum insulin levels from 40.93 to 30.74 mIU/L, and restoring activities of SOD compared with those in the bitter melon hot air drying powder (BAP) treated group. Furthermore, BLSP protected pancreatic tissues including islet beta cells and reduced the loss of islet cells. Combined with the difference of compositions in BLSP and BAP, it could be concluded that superfine grinding and lyophilization processes were beneficial for presenting the antidiabetic activity, which will provide a reference for direct utilization of bitter melon as a suitable functional food to relieve symptoms of diabetes.
Highlights
Momordica charantia Linn. (Cucurbitaceae) is referred to as bitter melon or bitter gourd and has recently attracted considerable attention for its various physiological activities, such as its antitumor [1,2,3], anti-inflammatory [4], antioxidant [5,6], antibacterial [7,8], hypoglycemic [9,10,11], hypocholesterolemic [12], hypotriglyceridemic [13], and immunostimulating activities [14]
The water content of the powder reduced from 5.92% to 2.66%, and the water solubility index increased from 37.82% to 39.38% (Table 1)
The present study presented the antidiabetic differences between bitter melon powders after lyophilization/superfine grinding and hot air drying/normal grinding processes for the first time
Summary
Momordica charantia Linn. (Cucurbitaceae) is referred to as bitter melon or bitter gourd and has recently attracted considerable attention for its various physiological activities, such as its antitumor [1,2,3], anti-inflammatory [4], antioxidant [5,6], antibacterial [7,8], hypoglycemic [9,10,11], hypocholesterolemic [12], hypotriglyceridemic [13], and immunostimulating activities [14]. Previous investigations have shown that the fruits and leaves of M. charantia had rich phenolics and exhibited a high antioxidant activity [5]. Nowadays, it has been used as a traditional antidiabetic remedy in eastern countries and areas for many years [11,15]. Several pure chemicals were isolated from bitter melon and applied for investigating their antidiabetic mechanisms, the mixture of these hypoglycemic chemicals such as saponins or charantins seemed to present a significantly higher bioactivity. The hypoglycemic chemicals of bitter melon are proven as a mixture of steroidal saponins known as charantins and alkaloids [21]. The antidiabetic mechanisms of bitter melon have been proposed
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