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# Bitter melon extract kills breast cancer cells
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/bitter_melon_extract_kills_breast_cancer_cells_2402100740/
- Published: 2010-02-24T07:38:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:42:56.000Z
- Description: Ratna Ray's team at Saint Louis University reports bitter melon extract induced death in breast cancer cells and slowed their growth and spread. Ray calls the result encouraging but says animal studies and clinical trials are still needed before any claim about treating the disease.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Cancer, Avoiding Illness, Bitter Melon, #vivvo-import

The extract from a vegetable that is commonly used in Asian countries like China might be one cheap medicine that can be enlisted to help fight breast cancer, according to a new study.

The study led by Ratna Ray, Ph.D. at Saint Louis University and colleagues shows that the bitter melon extract inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the effect of bitter melon extract on cancer cells," Ray said. "Our result was encouraging. We have shown that bitter melon extract significantly induced death in breast cancer cells and decreased their growth and spread."

The researchers decided to study the effect of bitter melon extract on breast cancer cells because other researchers have found the preparation lowers blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Bitter melon extract is commonly used as a folk medicine to treat diabetes in China and India and it has been observed that bitter melon is effective at helping diabetes patients.

It's too early to say the bitter melon extract would help cure breast cancer. Animal studies and clinical trials need to be conducted to confirm the results, Dr. Ray was cited as saying.

Bitter melon or bitter gourd is commonly used in Chinese cuisine. It is safe to use high amounts of this fruit.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 170,000 women and kills about 50,000 each year in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. 

For more information on bitter melon, read [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter\_melon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter%5Fmelon?ref=foodconsumer.org)

By David Liu