Toward Metabolomics in Bitter Gourd

Bitter gourd, Momordica charantia, is often seen in the tropical dishes. It belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. This plant has been investigated for unique bitter taste but also been utilized as a medicinal plant as folk medicine. In this chapter, previous studies on bitterness and on chemical studies for medicinal properties of bitter gourd are introduced. Bitter gourd secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids, phenolics, sterols, and terpenoids were already reported. Among these secondary metabolites, especially terpenoids are related to bitterness and pharmacology. It is reported that bitter gourd secondary metabolites can play an important role for plant interaction with pathogen. Indeed, some of them deter predators by using terpenoids. While its stem showed hypertrophy response in plant interaction with parasitic plant without showing any serious pathogenic response. As bitter gourd genome data are available now, further selection of target plants can be achieved. To select target plants, chemical assay is inevitable, and innovation of portable sensors will contribute to future application research.