Tissue Culture of Momordica charantia L.: A Review

Abstract

Plant tissue culture is the technique to culture plant cells or tissues under controlled aseptic conditions on a synthetic medium .It has value in basic research like cell biology, genetic transformation studies &biochemistry for the production of medicinally valuable secondary metabolites. Besides this also has commercial application. This review work outlines the work done on the tissue culture of Momordica charantia L. Momordica charantia L. commonly known as bitter melon/gourd, a member of Cucarbitaceae, is a slender, tendril climbing, annual vine. Bitter melon is a common food item of the tropics and is used for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, AIDS and many ailments. It is a potent hypoglycemic agent and its hypoglycemic actions for potential benefit in diabetes mellitus are possible due to at least three different groups of constituents in bitter melon. These include alkaloids, insulin like peptides, and a mixture of steroidal sapogenins known as charantin. Clinical studies with multiple controls have confirmed the benefit of bitter melon for diabetes. Alpha and beta momarcharin are two proteins found in bitter melon, which are known to inhibit the AIDS virus.