Varietal and harvesting stage variation in the content of carotenoids, ascorbic acid and tocopherols in the fruit of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

Abstract

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is an important market vegetable in the tropics. The objectives of this study were to (1) conduct a preliminary evaluation of genetic diversity in bitter gourd flesh (without seeds) for phytonutrient (carotenoid, ascorbic acid and tocopherol) contents with the aim to understand which phytonutrients might be increased through breeding, (2) assess the association between fruit traits and phytonutrient contents and (3) evaluate the effect of the fruit harvest stage on phytonutrient contents. A total of 17 diverse bitter gourd entries of various commercial market types were evaluated for fruit traits and phytonutrient contents for 2 years. Significant differences (P= 0.05) among the entries were detected for total carotenoids, total tocopherols, dry matter and fruit traits. Mean total carotenoid contents of the entries ranged from 10 to 1335 μg/100 g fresh weight in year 1 and 10 to 1185 μg/100 g fresh weight in year 2. Mean ascorbic acid contents were 69 and 61 mg/100 g fresh weight in year 1 and year 2, respectively. Total tocopherol contents among the entries ranged from 480 to 1345 and 445 to 2145 μg/100 g fresh weight in year 1 and year 2, respectively. Total carotenoid and ascorbic acid contents were highest at 12 days after fruit set (DAFS), but total tocopherol contents were highest from 14 to 20 DAFS. A 100 g portion of bitter gourd fruit can meet 190, 17 and 8% of the recommended daily allowances of vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin A, respectively, for adults.

Chemical composition, nutritional value and antioxidant properties of Mediterranean okra genotypes in relation to harvest stage

“…According to Chennupati, Seguin, and Liu (2011), the changes of tocopherols content during soybean development could be attributed to temperature stress and genotype, with different responses between various genotypes. Moreover, Gnayfeed, Daood, Biacs, and Alcaraz (2001) have reported a significant increase of alpha-tocopherol during red pepper ripening, while similar results have been reported by Dhillon et al (2016) and Saini, Zamany, and Keum (2017) for bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) and tomato fruit (Solanum lycopersicum L.), respectively Considering, the antioxidant properties of tocopherols, harvesting at early stages of fruit development is essential for pod quality for most of the studied genotypes, whereas especially for cv. "Pylaea" and "Boyati" which are usually harvested at small size, harvesting fruit at larger size should be considered with care and only if market standards are met.…”

Field Evaluation on Agronomic Characteristics of Newly Introduced Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.) Accessions in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam

“…The fruit length ranged from 3.05 cm (AVRDC 1329) to 25.94 cm (the control check). The data in this study were similar to the results reported by Dhillon et al [10], who conducted the study on 17 bitter gourd entries for two years and found fruit length ranged from 6 cm to 28 cm for year 1 and from 4 cm to 33 cm for year 2. The control check had the largest diameter with 4.51 cm and the smallest one was observed in AVRDC 1333 with 1.51 cm.…”

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of Cichorium spinosum L. leaves in relation to developmental stage

“…Similarly, Zeghichi et al (2003) have reported a decrease of alpha-tocopherol content in C. spinosum plants during growing period, despite the fact that they evaluated it in successively harvested leaves and not in different developmental stages. The effect of developmental stage on tocopherols content has been reported for other species, such as members of the Brassicaceae family (Björkman et al, 2011), Zingiber zerumbet L. (Ghasemzadeh et al, 2016), Momordica charantia L. (Dhillon et al, 2016) and so forth.…”