Can bitter gourd kill? Docs say no

Bottle gourd and bitter gourd juices don't kill, say doctors. "There may be one in a thousand case, where a patient reports sick after consuming bitter bottle gourd but such deaths are extremely rare," said Dr Y.K. Gupta, head of pharmacology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Bottle gourd and bitter gourd juices don't kill, say doctors. "There may be one in a thousand case, where a patient reports sick after consuming bitter bottle gourd but such deaths are extremely rare," said Dr Y.K. Gupta, head of pharmacology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

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Dr Gupta is also overseeing the examination of blood samples of Sushil Kumar Saxena, 59, and his wife Neeraj, 56, who reported sick at Rockland Hospital after consuming their morning dose of bitter gourd and bottle gourd juice.

Deputy secretary of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Sushil Kumar, who had consumed about 250 ml of the mixture died by the time he was brought to the hospital, his wife is still recovering from the poisoning. She is under the care of Dr M.P. Sharma, head of department of gastroenterology and medicine at Rockland Hospital.

"Circumstantial evidence suggests that it was a case of bitter bottle gourd poisoning. We should be able to give a definite report by Monday," said Dr Gupta.

According to Dr Gupta, a very high concentration of cucurbitacin in the vegetable of the cucumber family — pumpkin, bottle gourd, cucumbers, melons — can be toxic.

"Although this is the first incident of death due to consumption of bitter bottle gourd juice in my personal medicine practice, one or two cases of deaths have reported from the country," he said, adding, "But this certainly does not in any way undermine the goodness of bottle gourd juices, which have shown evidence of reduction in blood sugar and obesity levels."

Over last three years, Dr Randhir Sud and his team, who are now at Institute of Digestive and Hepato-biliary Sciences, Medanta, The Medicity have seen at least 20 such cases, 18 at Gangaram Hospital in Delhi and two in Medanta.

"A 35-year-old lady with bottle gourd poisoning was brought to me only yesterday. Most of these cases can be cured if treated promptly. Deaths happen in rare cases, where a patient has a history of underlying cardiac or kidney disease," said Dr Sud.

"Actually a very high concentration of cucurbitacin B compound which is found in vegetables of the cucumber family cause lowering of blood pressure and bleeding. Sometimes patients also go into shock," said Dr Sud, who advises that patients should never have vegetables like squash, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, and bottle gourds when they are very bitter.