• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.259-265
• /
• 2015

Momordica charantia, commonly known as bitter melon, has interesting pharmacological activities such as anticancer, antiviral, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antioxidant. As supported by recent scientific reports on the beneficial effects of M. charantia, it is one of the most promising functional plants for diabetes today. In this study, we fermented the bitter melon with lactic acid bacteria and investigated the capability of controlling diabetic conditions by decreasing the blood glucose levels. After extracting the fermented bitter melon with hot water or ethanol, we tested several biological activities using mouse models. When we tested the efficacy of the glycemic control, the extracts of fermented bitter melon significantly lowered the blood glucose levels of the alloxan-induced diabetic mice. We also found that the lactic acid bacteria-fermented bitter melon protected liver damages from the treatment of alloxan monohydrates and maintained low levels of triglycerides and high levels of HDL cholesterol in these mouse models. These results suggest that our approach on fermenting bitter melon and the extracts of fermented bitter melon could lead to the possibility of the development of functional foods that contain the effectiveness of controlling blood glucose and lipid levels as well as preventing liver damages.