Sushrutha indicated the use of the fruits as a wholesome food (vegetable) in wound healing (Suthra Sthana, 19.30); fruit juice as an emetic and purgative (Suthra Sthana, 39.4); as a drug with bitter taste (Suthra Sthana, 42.19); fruits as a vegetable (Suthra Sthana, 46.269); decoction of fruits processed in ghee (clarified

butter) for musculoskelatal disorders, particularly as therapeutic purgation (Chikitsa Sthana, 5.21); and the fruits as a good vegetable for patients sufferring from opthalmic diseases (Uttara Tandra, 17.51)(Sengupta, 1959).

The fruit of Momordica charantia was suggested for use to increase body heat, leaf juice in warm water as an anthelmintic and the dried powder of the whole plant as dressing for abscesses in leprosy (Anonymous, 1922).

The green fruit of wild and cultivated Momordica charantia was used to increase body heat, as an antitoxic, to increase salivation, to balance the three body humours, as an anthelmintic, in leprosy, in piles, rheumatism, gout, as a coolant of the eyes, antipyretic, as an appetiser, antispasmodic, antidiarrhoeaic and antiphlegmatic (Jagga Rao et al., 1933; Singh et al., 1983; Ambasta, 1986) and to cure burning soles (Chopra et al., 1956, 1968). The root is used as an astringent and in snake bite (Chopra et al., 1956, 1968). The decoction or powder of the whole plant along with cinnamomum, long pepper, rice and chalmugara oil was used against several skin diseases (Jagga Raao et al., 1933).

Tribals in Andhra Pradesh use the fruits of Momordica charantia in treating dandruff.

Momordica dioica was also put to diverse uses (Jagga Rao et al., 1933). The leaf was in use as an antiphlegmatic, antibilious, appetiser, antitoxic; the flowers to increase taste sensitivity; the fruits to balance the three body humours, to increase body heat, in eye ailments, in curing hiccups, anthelmintic, antileprosy and antiTB. The fruit extract in gingelly (sesame) oil was used as an antibacterial. The root powder or decoction was used in addition to the above, as an expectorant, cardiotonic, in treating headache, diarrhoea and dysentry. Momordica dioicais also used as an errhine, as a sedative in high fever, in urinary complaints and as a haemostatic (Chopra et al., 1956).

Fruits and leaves of Momordica cochinsinensis are applied externally in lumbago (Ambasta, 1986). The seeds are used as a poultice on fractures and ulcerations (Ambasta, 1986), cough and chest pains (Chopra et al., 1956) and to clear obstsructions of liver and spleen (Chopra et al., 1968).

The root of Momordica cymbalaria is used as an abortifacient (Chopra et al., 1956; Ambasta, 1986).

In western Africa the fruits of Momordica charantia and Momordica foetidaare used as a remedy for diabetes (Oliver-Bever, 1986), a use not found in the traditional Indian literature for any species of Momordica.

In Hongkong the fruit of Momordica cochinsinensis is used as an alternative bitter drug in place of Strychnos nuxvomica.

HOMOEOPATHY

Momordica balsamina is in use in Homoeopathy (Boericke, 1976) to treat griping colic; pain in the back and hypogastrium with painful and excessive menses; accumulation of flatus in splenic flexure of the colon; dizzy head with contents feeling lighter; mist before the eyes; abdominal rumblings, griping colicky pains starting from back and spreading over the abdomen; painful and profuse menustration with labour like pains followed by gushes of blood; pain at the small of the back coming towards the front of the pelvis.

Momordica charantia is indicated in more severe symptoms of the intestines with full of yellow watery liquid leading to explosive discharges; cramps, thirst, prostration, choleraic symptoms. Administered internally in the form tincture and as a poultice for burns and chapped hands.