bitter gourd

English: bitter gourd, bitter gourd

Alias: cold melon, brocade litchi, bitter grape, bitter gourd.

Biological classification: Eukaryotes, Plants, Angiosperms, Dicotyledonous Plants, Cucurbitaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Bitter Melon, Bitter Melon.

Scientific name: bitter gourd

Bitter gourd is the fruit of an annual climbing herb of Cucurbitaceae. Leaves alternate, palmately 5-7-parted. The flowers are small, unisexual, monoecious and yellow. The length does not exceed 2 cm. Fruit spindle-shaped, with tumor-like processes. When ripe, it is orange yellow, bitter, bright red and sweet. It is cultivated all over China.

Characteristics and characteristics of bitter gourd

Bitter gourd, known as golden litchi in ancient times, is also known as gall grapes, gall frogs and melons. It is an annual climbing herb and belongs to Momordica charantia of Cucurbitaceae. Native to tropical areas of East India. Japan and Southeast Asia have a long history of cultivation, which was introduced to Europe in the17th century. It can only be seen, not eaten. It has been cultivated in China for a long time, not only for ornamental purposes, but also for vegetables. Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Taiwan Province, Hunan, Sichuan and other provinces are widely cultivated. Bitter gourd fruit contains many nutrients. The edible part contains protein 0.9g, fat 0.2g, sugar 3.2g, cellulose 1. 1g, carotene 0.08mg, actinomycin b10.07mg, vitamin B 20.04mg and vitamin 84mg, which is the highest among melons and vegetables, second only to vegetables. The content of tender fruit glycoside is high, and it tastes bitter. As the fruit matures, the glycoside decomposes and the bitterness fades, so eat more tender fruits. The meat is crisp and tender, with moderate bitterness and delicious flavor. You can fry, cook, stew, cold salad, pickle and drink. In medicine, it has the effects of appetizing, improving eyesight, helping digestion, cooling and detoxifying, diuresis, and treating calf urine disease. Bitter gourd is heat-resistant, with few pests and diseases, and easy to cultivate. In recent years, large and medium-sized cities have been cultivated as varieties to increase the color of anti-season vegetables in summer and autumn. Bitter gourd in Guangdong is also exported to Hong Kong and Macao. Bitter gourd is also used as an ornamental plant for vertical greening in gardens. It has small yellow flowers in summer, which is really a little yellow among evergreen trees. When the fruit is ripe, it is orange, adding another scene. After the pulp is cracked, there is thick red meat outside the seed, which looks like egg yolk and is very gorgeous. Bitter gourd is not only a good dish in summer, but also a kind of good medicine. People pay more and more attention to it and gradually expand the planting area.

I. Features and characteristics

The root system is developed and there are many lateral roots. The distribution range of root groups is over 65438 0.3 meters. The stem is tendril-shaped, pentagonal, dark green, fluffy, with strong branching, easy to tendril sideways, followed by yang tendrils, forming aboveground parts and lush foliage. Cotyledons unearthed, primary opposite, shield-shaped, green. True leaves alternate, palmately parted, green, light green on the back, 5 radial veins, leaf length 18 cm, width 18-24 cm, petiole length 9- 10 cm, and there are grooves on the petiole. Flowers are unisexual and dioecious. Male flowers first, then female flowers, solitary. The fruit is a berry with many tumor-like protrusions on its surface. Fruit shapes are spindle-shaped, short cone-shaped, long cone-shaped and so on. The pericarp color is green, greenish white and strong green, and it is orange when it matures. The pulp cracked and the seeds were exposed. The seeds are shield-shaped, flat and light yellow. Each fruit contains 20-30 seeds, and the 1000-grain weight is150-180 g.

The whole growth process of bitter gourd takes about 80- 100 days, and it grows slowly before the vine-pulling stage, and most of the stems and vines are formed at the flowering and fruiting stage. Each node has lateral vines from bottom to top, forming multi-level stems and vines. With the growth of stems and vines, the number and area of leaves are increasing, and the flowering and fruiting period accounts for 95% of the leaf area of a single plant. It can be seen that the assimilation organ was formed in the middle and late stage of flowering and fruiting. Generally, the first male flower occurs in section 4-6; The first female flower occurs in the 8th-14th node, usually one female flower occurs every 3-6 nodes, but most of them have 6-7 female flowers before the 50th node of the main vine. From the point of view of regulating plant nutrition, removing lateral vines is beneficial to concentrate nutrients and improve the female flower setting rate of main vines.

Bitter gourd is warm, heat-resistant and not cold-resistant. The suitable temperature for seed germination is 30-35℃. Germination is slow below 20℃, and the seed coat is thick. After soaking in warm water at 40-50℃ for 4-6 hours, it germinates around 30℃, and most of it germinates in two and a half days. It is difficult to germinate below 13℃. The optimum temperature for plant growth is 20-30℃, and 25℃ is the best. The optimum temperature at flowering and fruiting stage is about 25℃. In the range of 15-25℃, the higher the temperature, the better the growth and development of bitter gourd. Most people think that temperatures above 35℃ and below 15℃ are not conducive to the growth of bitter gourd. The requirement for the length of sunshine is not strict, it is not tolerant to shade, and it needs strong light during flowering and fruiting, which is beneficial to photosynthesis and fruit setting rate. Bitter gourd prefers wet to waterlogging, and it needs 85% air relative humidity and soil humidity in its growing period. It has wide adaptability to soil, but fertile loam with good water and fertilizer retention is suitable.

Bitter gourd was not recorded in medical books before the Ming Dynasty, but was included in Disaster Relief Materia Medica and Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty. It is suspected that Sambo eunuch was transplanted from Nanyang Islands when he went to the Western Ocean. In Qing Dynasty, Wang Mengying's "Diet Spectrum with Interest" said: "Bitter gourd is bitter and cold in Qing Dynasty; Clearing heat, improving eyesight and clearing heart. This sauce can be pickled. ┅┅ People with moderate cold (cold bottom) should not eat it. When cooked, it is red, sweet and flat, nourishing blood and softening the liver, strengthening the spleen and tonifying the kidney. " In other words, when the melon is ripe, the color is red, the bitterness is reduced, the coldness is reduced, and the nourishing effect is obvious. Compared with late ripening, it is mainly based on clearing and replenishing. In fact, eating bitter gourd is delicious only when the color is blue and yellow, and it has the effect of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat.

Bitter gourd tastes bitter, and southerners eat more vegetables. Bitter gourd can be eaten in summer and autumn, and eaten with Mo as a meal, but it is delicious and not bitter. Cantonese in China sliced bitter gourd, dried it and used it as medicine, which is the dry bitter gourd for treating colds in summer.

Cooking home-cooked dishes with bitter gourd, such as "fried frog with cold melon", "ribs with cold melon" and "stuffed cold melon", is meaningful to eat. But people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang don't know the taste and eat less bitter gourd. Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian are rich in bitter gourd, while other provinces enjoy it in potted plants.

Bitter gourd is named after its taste, and the bitter word is not pleasant to listen to. Cantonese also call it cold melon. Bitter gourd is shaped like a tumor, also called melon; Melon has wrinkles, like litchi, so it is also called brocade litchi.

Sexual taste and meridian tropism:

Bitter and cold. Enter spleen, stomach, heart and liver meridians.

Efficacy:

Clearing away heat and heart fire, detoxifying and improving eyesight, invigorating qi and essence, quenching thirst and relieving summer heat, and treating carbuncle.

Clinical application:

1. Used for upset, thirst, heatstroke, etc.

Hot thirst: 1 fresh bitter gourd, pulp cut, sliced and decocted in water;

Heatstroke: Take 1 fresh bitter gourd, cut off the pulp, add it to tea, then add it, hang it in a ventilated place and dry in the shade, 6-9g each time, and take it with water or soak it in boiling water instead of drinking tea.

2. Used for carbuncle and dysentery.

Carbuncle swelling: take fresh bitter gourd and mash it and apply it to the affected area;

Dysentery: take fresh bitter gourd juice and take it with boiling water; Or a fresh bitter gourd, mashed to get juice, washed with boiling water or dried with bitter gourd vines and ground into powder, 3g each time, once every 6 hours, washed with boiling water.

3. Used for liver heat, red eyes or pain.

Boil soup or juice for drinking;

Or dry bitter gourd 15g, chrysanthemum 10g, decocted in water.

4. Used for cold and fever, body pain and bitter taste in summer.

Dry bitter gourd 15g, onion 10g, ginger 6g, decocted in water.

5. Used for stomachache.

Bitter gourd is burnt into charcoal and ground into powder, each time 1g, washed with boiling water, 2-3 times a day.

Precautions for use:

People with spleen and stomach deficiency and cold should not eat raw food, which makes people vomit, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Pregnant women are not suitable.

References:

Herbal Medicine in South Yunnan: "Treating Dan fire poison gas, furuncle poison, or sesame boils all over the body is unbearable." Purging six meridians to strengthen fire, clearing heat and relieving summer heat, benefiting qi and quenching thirst. "

Life Sutra: "Eliminating pathogenic heat, relieving fatigue, clearing heart and improving eyesight."

Seeking truth from materia medica: "except pyrolysis."

Wang Qing Meng Ying's Diet Spectrum with Interest: "Bitter gourd is bitter and cold when it is clear; Clearing heat, improving eyesight and clearing heart. This sauce can be pickled. ┅┅ People with moderate cold (cold bottom) should not eat it. When cooked, it is red, sweet and flat, nourishing blood and softening the liver, strengthening the spleen and tonifying the kidney. "

Toxic and side effects:

Modern research shows that bitter gourd contains bitter gourd, 5- hydroxytryptamine and glutamic acid, alanine, proline, γ -aminobutyric acid, citrulline, galacturonic acid, pectin, sugar, trace fat, protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, carotene, vitamin B 1, vitamin B2, vitamin C and so on.

Bitter gourd juice or bitter gourd can lower blood sugar.

Bitter gourd kernel (seed) tastes bitter and sweet, but it can "replenish qi and strengthen yang" The aphrodisiac here almost refers to the accumulation of heat in kidney fire, and sexual intercourse will be discharged at the touch, so bitter gourd kernel will dispel its evil heat, and sexual intercourse will be balanced and return to normal, so it can strengthen yang. If impotence is weak and cold, it will aggravate impotence.

According to animal experiments, pregnant rats fed with bitter gourd juice will cause uterine bleeding and die within a few hours, so pregnant women should not eat bitter gourd.

It comes from Momordica charantia of Cucurbitaceae, and is used as medicine with melons, roots, vines and leaves. Collect in summer, treat separately, and dry in the sun.

Nature and taste belong to melons, roots and leaves: bitter and cold.

Function is mainly used for clearing away heat and toxic materials. Used for heatstroke, fever, toothache, enteritis, dysentery and bloody stool; Topical treatment of miliaria, boils, boils.

Usage and dosage: melon, root and grade: 2 ~ 3; Appropriate amount is applied externally, mashed or rubbed on the affected area.

Excerpted from the National Collection of Chinese Herbal Medicine

Cultural appreciation

Shen Peng, Qing Ye. "Broken Magnolia Brocade Litchi": "Yellow leaves are green, the wind on the fence attracts butterflies, the fruit is separated, and the small print steals the brocade litchi. However, if you want to be handsome, you don't have to laugh at his concubine. Rattan pulp, is it eighteen niangs in southern Fujian? "

Folklore: Bitter gourd has a characteristic of "not passing on its own bitterness to other things", that is, it is fried and cooked together with any dish such as fish and meat, and it will never pass on its own bitterness to each other. Therefore, some people say that bitter gourd "has the virtue and merit of a gentleman" and is known as "the dish of a gentleman".

Folk proverb: "People say bitter gourd is bitter, but I say bitter gourd is sweet. You can choose whether it is bitter or not. There is no sweetness without bitterness. "

Healthy diet

1. Bitter gourd mixed with celery each150g, sesame paste and garlic paste. Peel the bitter gourd, remove the pulp, cut it into filaments, blanch it with boiling water, rinse it with cold water, drain the water, then mix celery and bitter gourd, add seasoning and mix well. This dish has the effect of cooling liver and lowering blood pressure, and is suitable for hypertensive patients with hyperactivity of liver yang.

2. There are 1 bitter gourd in balsam pear tea, and appropriate amount of green tea. Cut the upper end of bitter gourd, dig out the pulp, add green tea, and hang the melon in a cool and ventilated place; Pick bitter gourd dried in the shade, wash it, chop it with tea leaves, mix it evenly, put 10g into a cup, and brew it with boiling water for drinking. The tea has the effects of clearing away heat, relieving summer heat, promoting diuresis and relieving restlessness, and is suitable for heatstroke, fever, thirst and irritability.

3. Bitter gourd juice 500 grams of fresh bitter gourd. First, wash and slice the bitter gourd, add 250 ml of water to the pot and cook for about 10 minute until the melon is ripe. Eat melons and drink juice. This fruit juice has the effect of clearing away heat and improving eyesight, and is suitable for people with liver fire and red eyes and pain.

4. Bitter gourd mud juice raw bitter gourd three, sugar 60 grams. Wash the bitter gourd first, mash it into mud, add sugar and mix well. After 2 hours, squeeze out the water and cool it once. This juice has the effects of clearing away heat, promoting diuresis and inducing resuscitation, and is suitable for deafness, ear swelling and pain, red tongue with yellow fur, and short and red urine caused by disturbance of damp heat.

Note: Bitter gourd is cool, and it is not suitable for people with spleen and stomach deficiency.

Common diseases of bitter gourd

Bitter gourd white silk disease

Pathogenic characteristics:

The whole plant withered, the stem base was wrapped by tremella rope or rapeseed-like brown sclerotia, and the affected part was brown rot. A large number of white bands and brown sclerotia can be seen on the soil surface.

Law of occurrence:

Pathogenic bacteria overwinter in the soil with the bacterial rope and sclerotia left by the diseased residue, spread through irrigation water and rainwater, and invade from the wound to cause disease. After the onset, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum spreads through running water or comes into contact with neighboring plants through mycelium climbing. Hot and humid weather is conducive to the onset. Continuous cropping, acid soil and sandy loam with good permeability often cause serious diseases by using raw soil and miscellaneous fertilizers.

Prevention and control methods:

(1) Avoid continuous cropping seriously.

(2) timely inspection found that the diseased plants were pulled out and burned in time, and diluted 150 kg of water with mycorrhiza near the diseased site, and the roots were irrigated.

(3) Prevention first and comprehensive treatment.

Bitter gourd perforation:

Pathogenic characteristics:

Mainly harmful to leaves. The leaf spot is nearly round, yellowish brown to yellowish white or grayish white, with a transverse diameter ranging from 1 mm to several mm, and small black spots as big as needles appear on the spot surface. In the later stage, the lesion tissue is easy to fall off into leaf perforation, and necrotic tissue remains around the perforation spot. The disease is similar to Cercospora leaf spot, but the difference is that the disease is characterized by small black spots rather than mildew, and most of them are perforated spots.

Law of occurrence:

All pathogens overwinter in the soil, mycelium and conidia are left with the sick and disabled, and conidia are used as inoculum for primary and re-invasion, spreading infection and causing diseases by rainwater sputtering. Warm and humid weather is conducive to the onset.

Prevention and control methods:

(1) Selection of disease-resistant varieties.

(2) Combined with comprehensive control of anthracnose.

(3) Spray 50% Enrique 800 times solution.

Bitter gourd diet-eating bitter gourd diet

First of all, bitter gourd should be eaten raw to lose weight, and two or three pieces should be eaten raw a day. Because bitter gourd contains a lot of fat, it is well founded. Friends who want to lose weight are not afraid to try! Bitter gourd is bitter, but for our slimming purpose, let's try it together! Good quality and low price! According to the following:

Bitter gourd, named after its bitter taste, is also called cold melon. Bitter gourd is also a vegetable used to clear heat in summer. Bitter gourd is rich in vitamins B, C, calcium and iron. Li Shizhen said that bitter gourd has the effects of "dispelling pathogenic heat, relieving fatigue, clearing heart and improving eyesight, benefiting qi and strengthening yang". According to the research, it has obvious hidden blood sugar effect and has certain curative effect on diabetes. It also has certain antiviral ability and anticancer effect.

Bitter gourd cooked food is warm, raw food is cold, and people with spleen deficiency and stomach cold should not eat it raw. In addition, pregnant women should be careful about their diet.

Obesity is like the plague in the world today, spreading from one country to another, from one person to another, and "special effects" slimming products appear constantly, but the pace of obesity has never stopped. But in Hanzhong, our province, some people can't get fat even after eating, and their bodies are slim and delicate, and their skin is smooth and tender. Why? What secrets do they have?

CCTV's "Life and Health" column group once reported this wonderful landscape, which revealed the mystery: it turns out that they eat 2-3 bitter melons raw every day, so they are so slim. At that time, during the interview, the director Miss Lu Di also tried to take a bite, which soon hurt. It seems that although the weight loss effect of bitter gourd is surprisingly good, it is really unbearable to eat several pieces every day. Of course there are exceptions. An old lady surnamed Sun ate five bitter melons in one breath in front of the camera. She said that her original weight was 1.74kg, and she suffered from hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and arteriosclerosis. After eating bitter gourd for a year, her weight was reduced to 96 kg, and all those diseases were cured.

Bitter gourd is bitter, and the bitterness can't be swallowed, but you know what? A bitter gourd contains 0.4% of the weight-loss special ingredient-high-energy lipid. Eat a few bitter melons a day, and you won't get fat no matter how you eat or sleep.

concentrate one's attention

Bitter gourd contains quinine, which will stimulate uterine contraction and cause abortion. Pregnant women should be careful to eat!

Edit this nutritional analysis

1. Promote diet, diminish inflammation and reduce fever:

Momordicoside and picroside in bitter gourd can stimulate appetite, strengthen spleen and increase appetite. Quinine, an alkaloid substance contained in it, has the effects of promoting diuresis and blood circulation, diminishing inflammation and reducing fever, clearing away heart fire and improving eyesight;

2. Anti-cancer:

The protein component of Momordica charantia and a large amount of vitamin C can improve the immune function of the body and make immune cells have the function of killing cancer cells; Bitter gourd juice contains some protein components, which can enhance the ability of macrophages and is effective for lymphosarcoma and leukemia in clinic. Trypsin inhibitor extracted from bitter gourd seeds can inhibit the protease secreted by cancer cells and prevent the growth of malignant tumors;

3. Reduce blood sugar:

Momordica charantia fresh juice contains momordicin and insulin-like substances, which has a good hypoglycemic effect and is an ideal food for diabetic patients.

The right person edits this paragraph.

The general population can eat it.

1. Suitable for patients with diabetes, cancer and miliaria;

2. Bitter gourd is cool, and people with spleen and stomach deficiency are not suitable for eating.

Edit this cooking instruction.

1. Don't eat too much at once.

2. Bitter gourd boiled water to scrub the skin can clear away heat and relieve itching and relieve malnutrition.

3. Bitter gourd and eggs can protect bones, teeth and blood vessels, make iron better absorbed, have the function of invigorating stomach, and can treat stomachache, eye pain, cold, typhoid fever and diarrhea and vomiting in children.

Edit this paragraph for dietotherapy.

Bitter gourd tastes bitter, non-toxic, cold in nature, and enters the heart, liver, spleen and lung meridians;

Has the effects of clearing away heat, relieving summer-heat, improving eyesight, removing toxic substances, inducing diuresis, cooling blood, relieving fatigue, clearing heart fire, invigorating qi and strengthening yang;

Indications: heatstroke, summer heat, polydipsia, summer furuncle, excessive miliaria, red eyes, swelling and pain, carbuncle, erysipelas, burns, oliguria, etc.

Beauty function

Bitter gourd can moisturize white skin, calm and moisturize skin, especially in hot summer, applying iced bitter gourd slices can immediately relieve skin irritability.

Eat bitter gourd to prevent acne

Bitter gourd is also known as bitter gourd, golden litchi, bitter grape, toad, red girl, cold melon and gentleman's dish. Bitter gourd originated in eastern India and spread to southern China in the early Ming Dynasty. Bitter gourd belongs to cucurbitaceae and is an annual vine. Its stems, leaves, flowers and fruits all look strange and can be used as ornamental plants.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the spleen and stomach are warm and steaming internally, or the lung meridian is hot, or the digestive tract is dysfunctional, or the impulse and appointment are not coordinated, and the rise and stagnation in the face become acne.

Summer is the season of acne. In summer, the temperature suddenly rises, people sweat more, sebaceous glands secrete more sebum, clothes are airtight or rub against the body, leading to the outbreak of acne.

Momordica charantia is cold and bitter, enters the heart, lungs and stomach, and has the functions of clearing away heat, quenching thirst, lowering blood pressure, reducing blood fat, caring skin and promoting metabolism. Bitter gourd is rich in vitamin B 1, vitamin C and minerals. If used for a long time, it can maintain vitality and is of great benefit to the treatment of acne.

Therefore, in summer, we should eat less spicy, greasy, high-calorie, high-sugar and crude fiber foods, eat more vegetables rich in vitamins such as bitter gourd and carrot, and pay attention to drinking more water.

Vegetarian fried bitter gourd:

Ingredients: bitter gourd and salad oil.

Method: Stir-fry with big fire.

Bitter gourd fried eggs:

Ingredients: bitter gourd, eggs, and appropriate amount.

Method: fry the eggs until 70-80% cooked, then add bitter gourd and stir-fry with strong fire.

Edit the comments in this paragraph.

One fruit tumor after another on bitter gourd is the characteristic to judge the quality of bitter gourd. The bigger the particle, the fuller it is, indicating that the melon meat is thicker; The smaller the particles, the thinner the melon meat. Bitter gourd should be white and beautiful in addition to picking large fruit tumors and erect fruit lines, because if bitter gourd turns yellow, it means it is overripe, the pulp is soft and not crisp enough, and it loses its proper taste.