Karela Extract (Bitter Melon)

Karela extract is produced from the fruit of Momordica charantia L., the Cucurbitaceae climber known in English as bitter melon or bitter gourd, karela in Hindi, kakarakaya in Telugu, pavakkai in Tamil, goya in Okinawa and kugua in China. India is the world's largest producer and the immature green fruit is an everyday vegetable across the subcontinent, which puts the raw material on a food footing that most Ayurvedic botanicals do not enjoy and makes supply broad, seasonal and price-competitive. Thovek's record here is fruit extract. Leaf, aerial-part and whole-plant material are chemically different, carry a different marker profile and are quoted separately — they should not be ordered against this specification. The fruit's characteristic constituents are cucurbitane-type triterpenoids — the momordicosides, karavilosides including karaviloside IX, momordicin, momordin, karavilagenin and the kuguacins — together with charantin (CAS 57126-62-2), a 1:1 mixture of beta-sitosteryl glucoside (C35H60O6) and 5,25-stigmastadienyl glucoside (C35H58O6), and the peptide fraction known as polypeptide-p, whose oral activity is unresolved in the literature and which Thovek does not assay or claim. Charantin needs a plain warning, because the trade's usual number does not survive arithmetic. Validated HPLC work puts charantin in bitter melon fruit at roughly 0.12–0.60 mg per gram of dried fruit — that is 0.01–0.06% — with Indian material measured at 0.547 mg/g and fruit flesh alone at about 0.16 mg/g. A genuine 10% charantin assay would therefore require enrichment of two to three orders of magnitude, which is not what a 10:1 extract does. Figures of that size, quoted routinely across the market, are almost always total steroidal saponins or total bitters measured by a broad UV or gravimetric method and then reported under the charantin name. Thovek quotes bitters and total saponins as explicitly method-defined figures and reserves the word charantin for HPLC results against a reference standard at whatever level the lot genuinely assays. Charantin's two components co-elute and are quantified as a mixture; that is a property of the analyte, not a defect in the method. The composition of the starting material matters here for reasons beyond assay. Bitter melon seed carries vicine, a pyrimidine glycoside associated with acute haemolysis in people with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, and the ribosome-inactivating proteins alpha- and beta-momorcharin; the pulp carries substantially less vicine than the seed. Thovek's default grade is made from deseeded green fruit, and the specification states plainly whether seed is present, so a brand can make an accurate consumer-facing statement instead of guessing. Seed-inclusive and whole-fruit grades are available where a formulation specifically calls for them. The extract is vegan and vegetarian, with no milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean, gluten or nut inputs and no bovine or porcine material or processing aids, and it is non-GMO. Cucurbitaceae is not a regulated allergen in India, the EU, the US or Canada, but a small population of cucurbit-sensitive consumers exists and the botanical family is stated on the specification so a brand can decide its own precautionary wording. Every consignment carries a full certificate of analysis, botanical identity confirmation with DNA barcoding on request, heavy-metal, pesticide-residue and microbiological reports, an allergen and GMO statement and an MSDS. Organic (NPOP / NOP / EU), Kosher and Halal certified lots are available to order.