Bitter Melon
A gourd eaten as food across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
- On the label as
- Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) fruit
- Position
- 5 of 14, heaviest first
- Botanical or chemical name
- Momordica charantia
- Part used
- Fruit
- Where it comes from
- India, China, southeast Asia, Africa and the Caribbean
- Human evidence for glucose
- Mixed — Laboratory evidence and human trial evidence disagree.
- Amount in GlycoAid
- Not disclosed; part of one 500 mg blend
Bitter melon is a knobbly green gourd and, across an enormous part of the world, simply dinner. It gets stuffed, fried, curried and juiced, and it also appears in Ayurvedic, Chinese and Caribbean folk practice for blood sugar quite independently of one another.
Its bitterness is the point rather than a flaw. Cucurbitacins and momordicin produce it, and the same chemistry that makes the fruit hard work to eat is the chemistry researchers keep returning to.
What the research shows
No ingredient on this label illustrates the gap between tradition and trial data better. Laboratory work finds compounds with insulin-like behaviour, and animal studies read well.
The human data is where it comes apart. Randomised trials comparing bitter melon against placebo or against metformin have produced inconsistent answers, and one widely quoted study found metformin clearly ahead and bitter melon barely distinguishable from placebo. Preparation muddies everything further, since juice, dried powder and seed extract are chemically different products.
Evidence grade: Mixed
Laboratory evidence and human trial evidence disagree.
What that means inside GlycoAid
Fifth on the list, as dried fruit. People who use it traditionally eat a portion of vegetable or drink a glass of juice, quantities no fraction of a 500 mg blend can approach. Its role here reads as part of a traditional combination rather than as a working dose.
Everything above describes bitter melon as a named substance at doses used in published work. It does not describe GlycoAid, which declares one combined 500 mg covering all fourteen ingredients and publishes no individual amount.
Cautions and interactions
- The seeds contain vicine, which can trigger red blood cell breakdown in people with G6PD deficiency.
- It can add to the effect of glucose-lowering medication, and low readings have been reported from that combination.
- Avoid during pregnancy.
- At food-scale intakes, stomach upset is common.
Questions About Bitter Melon
Three that come in most often about this ingredient.
Why grade it mixed?
Because the laboratory findings and the better-run human trials disagree, and the human trials are the less flattering ones.
Is eating it better?
You certainly consume far more of it that way. Whether more helps is the question the trials have not resolved.
What is G6PD deficiency?
An inherited enzyme shortfall that leaves red blood cells vulnerable to certain compounds, vicine among them.
Other Ingredients In The Blend
The label lists ingredients heaviest first, so position is the only quantitative information it carries.
See all fourteen ingredients · About the product · Safety information
GlycoAid Contains Bitter Melon
Alongside thirteen other ingredients inside one 500 mg blend, taken as a single capsule a day.
- 14 ingredients in one 500 mg blend
- 30 capsules a bottle, one a day
- 60-day money-back guarantee from the charge date
- $49 a bottle on six with free US shipping
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