Introduction
Bitter melon, bitter gourd, bitter cucumber or balsam pear grows
commonly throughout Thailand, and is grown as a vegetable crop all over the
tropics, including South East Asia, India, South America, East Africa and the
Caribbean (Morgan and Midmore, 2002). The immature fruits and the tender
leafy shoots or the ripe fruits (Yamaguchi, 1983) have both nutritional as well
as medicinal importance (Khan and Anderson, 2003). It has a long history of
medicinal use especially in a diabetes treatment and other medicinal properties