http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/j...97735/abstract Quote:
D-CHIRO-INOSITOL FOUND IN MOMORDICA CHARANTIA FRUIT EXTRACT PLAYS A ROLE IN REDUCING BLOOD GLUCOSE IN STREPTOZOTOCIN-DIABETIC RATS
TAO XIA 1,3 and QIN WANG 2 1 College of Life Science
East China Normal University
Shanghai 200062, China
2 College of Life Science and Biotechnology
Shanghai Jiaotong University
Shanghai, China
Correspondence to 3 TEL/FAX: +86-21-62235711; EMAIL: txia@bio.ecnu.edu.cn
Copyright © 2007, The Author(s); Journal compilation © 2007, Blackwell Publishing
ABSTRACT
Momordica charantia, commonly known as bitter gourd, has been shown to possess hypoglycemic activity. However, the mechanism of its action is not known. Chemically synthesized d-chiro-inositol (d-CI), the component of insulin mediators, has been demonstrated to have antihyperglycemic effects in rats. In this study, we found that M. charantia fruit contains relatively high levels of d-CI; thus, it may be a source of d-CI for reducing blood glucose concentrations in diabetics. In fed streptozotocin (STZ) rats, a dose of M. charantia fruit extract containing 20 mg of d-CI/kg of body weight markedly reduced blood glucose and plasma insulin after oral administration. A significant effect on oral glucose tolerance was also noted in fasted STZ rats. Findings from this study demonstrate that M. charantia fruit extract is an effective source of d-CI for lowering blood glucose concentrations in rats, and therefore may be useful in the treatment of diabetes.
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(Bitter gourd is the same as bitter melon.)
I'm surprised I never knew about this before. This is exciting for me because DCI works great for me, but I am getting really sick of eating the buckwheat farinetta every day (I've been doing it for over a year now!). I got weird digestive problems when I tried the DCI in pill form.
Unfortunately, they don't say how much DCI is in bitter melon. But people seem to have to good results with lowering blood sugar with the recommended doses on bottles of bitter melon supplements.
It seems like it should be cheaper than the buckwheat farinetta, and waaay cheaper than the DCI pills from chiralbalance.com.