Bitter Melon, Sweet Potential


A bitter-tasting vegetable may strengthen the body's defenses 
against diseases like cancer and AIDS, according to Iowa 
State researchers.

Joan Cunnick, professor in microbiology, immunology and 
preventive medicine, and graduate student Kelly Nordyke 
Messingham are trying to determine if bitter melon can be 
used to stimulate the immune system. So far, they've found 
that rats injected with a bitter-melon extract have increased 
ability to fight off tumors.

"In California and Washington, some people with AIDS are 
adding bitter melon to their diets, hoping it may boost their 
immune systems," Cunnick said.

Messingham said she believes bitter melon is stimulating the 
rats' immune systems. 

"A substance in bitter melon, perhaps a protein, appears to 
spur the body's natural tumor-killing cells to perform better 
and proliferate faster. We see increased numbers of cells 
that seek and destroy cancer cells."

The increase in anti-tumor activity is even more dramatic in 
rats exposed to stress. 

"A body that's stressed-out can allow diseases, including 
cancer and viruses, to gain a foothold," Cunnick said. 
"Bitter melon might help prevent stress from weakening the 
body's defenses."

Cunnick also sees bitter melon as a potential way to 
rejuvenate the immune systems of people sapped by diseases, 
including those who have completed chemotherapy or are 
fighting AIDS.

A relative of the cucumber, bitter melon is common in China, 
India and Africa, where it has been used in herbal medicines 
for hundreds of years. The vegetable lives up to its name. 

"It's an acquired taste," Cunnick said. "It's often prepared 
in ways that remove some of the bitter flavor."

With more studies of its benefits, bitter melon eventually 
might be added to the list of foods experts recommend to 
cancer patients or other disease sufferers, Cunnick said. 
Since it's a food, no federal approval would be necessary. 
Making a drug from the specific substance within bitter melon 
would take years and would require a lengthy regulatory 
process.

Bitter melon may prove useful in animal agriculture, too.

"It could be fed to young animals to induce their immune 
systems to develop faster, or fed to animals to help prevent 
diseases caused by the stress of shipping," Cunnick said.

Eventually, ISU researchers want to identify the protein or 
substance believed responsible for the immune enhancement. 
But the next step will be feeding bitter melon to rats to 
learn if the substance survives their digestive systems.

But will the rats balk at the bitter taste?

"We plan to put it in milk with lots of sugar," Cunnick said.

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contact:  Brian Meyer, Ag Information Service, (515) 294-0706
updated:  9-28-95