Kole Couple’s ‘Miracle’ Medicinal Bitter Gourd Varieties Offer New Hope in Fight Against Cancer and Diabetes

Prevalence of chronic diseases including cancer and diabetes is increasing globally. There were about 20 million new cases of cancer with 9.7 million deaths due to it in 2022. A recent study projects 18.5 million cancer deaths by 2050, an 89.7% increase over 2022. In 2022, India had more than 14.1 lakh new cancer cases and over 9.1 lakh deaths due to the disease. Similarly, 589 million adults were living with diabetes in 2024 and the number of deaths due to it was 3.4 million. Death due to type-2 diabetes alone is projected at 3.68 million by 2050. India has the second-largest number of diabetics worldwide. According to an estimate, over 74 million Indians were diagnosed with diabetes in 2021, and this is expected to rise to over 124 million by 2045. Diabetes is not only a dangerous disease itself but also causes other diseases like obesity, hypertension, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, etc.

Utilization of nutraceutical crops, such as fruits and vegetables as a source of medicinally active phytochemicals is a potential alternative for prevention and management of these diseases. Bitter gourd is such a vegetable crop as an amazing source of phytomedicines! Bitter gourd is a cucurbit vegetable crop that can be popularized as a functional food crop. This plant contains over 60 phytomedicines active against over 30 diseases. It is consumed as a traditional medicine in many countries. Several medicinal properties of bitter gourd including antidiabetic, anticancer, antitumor, antileukemic, antioxidant, antiulcer, anti- inflammatory, hypocholesterolemic and hypotriglyceridemic properties are well documented in research. Almost all parts of bitter gourd, primarily the fruits and seeds, contain Cucurbitacin-B that have proven anticancer actions. They also contain Charantin and Plant Insulin that have clinically demonstrated hypoglycemic and antihyperglycemic activities and established beneficial effects on diabetes, especially of type-2. Plant Insulin can control both type I and type II diabetes. However, the popularly cultivated varieties of bitter gourd have lower content of phytomedicines.

But a couple from Kolkata have done the miracle! And this can be seen in their recent research paper appearing in an international journal of ‘Crop Breeding, Genetics and Genomics’ published from London, UK and New York, USA (https://cbgg.hapres.com/htmls/CBGG_1894_Detail.html). The legendary agricultural scientist, Mr. (Prof.) Chittaranjan Kole and his perfect complimentary wife, Mrs. Phullara Kole have developed 8 medicinal varieties from wild bitter gourd plants. These varieties are loaded with the anti-cancer phytomedicine, Cucurbitacin-B and the anti-diabetic phytomedicines Charantin and Plant Insulin. Fruits of these miracle varieties can be used as normal vegetable. They can also be used to prepare extracts and making powder for long storage and transport. These fruits can be a source of extraction of the phytomedicines for research and use as drugs for patients.   Thus, these fruits can serve both for prevention and cure of cancer and diabetes and related diseases. These fruits may also be used for studies on other potent phytomedicines by the scientists and pharmaceutical companies.

Mr. and Mrs. Kole started this work at the Clemson University, USA and completed it in India. Mr. Kole was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry and also the Director of Research of the Institute of Nutraceutical Research at the Clemson University and Mrs. Kole was a Research Associate that department. In India, they established the Prof. Chittaranjan Kole Foundation for Science & Society at Kolkata and completed the final analysis and writing of their research paper. Mr. Kole is the Chairman and Mrs. Kole is the Executive Director of the foundation.