Research progress on the active composition and mechanism for anti-tumor effects of Momordica charantia L.

Momordica charantia L. as a medicinal and edible plant, has many pharmacological activities such as antitumor, hypoglycemic, antihyperlipidemics, antioxidation, antibacterial and so on. This paper reviews the anti-tumor effects of different solvent extracts from M. charantia on the digestive, respiratong and other other physiologieal systems. The main mechamism of the anti -tumor effeets is inducing apoptosis, preventing cell metastasis, affecting energy homeostasis, reversing effect of multidrug resistance, etc. Additionally, we sum up the main chemical substances of anti-tumor including triterpenoids, ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs), linolenic acid, ribonucleaseand hemagglutinin etc. Meanwhile, the paper also summarizes the security risks of excessive consumption of M. charantia and the corresponding modification, methods, and put the main problems of M. charantia anti-tumor effects which are needed to pay attention in the future.