Bitter Wild Cucumbers May Hold a Compound for Future Medicinal Applications

Scientists have discovered that the same genes that are responsible for the intense, bitter taste of wild cucumbers may just be the same compound that could be used to treat cancer and diabetes. While this "bitterness" gene was removed from pumpkin and their relatives to make them into popular foods, wild cucumber could potentially hold further potential for health.

"You don't eat wild cucumber, unless you want to use is as a purgative," said William Lucas, co-author of the new study, in a news release.

The bitter flavor in wild cucurbits, a family that includes cucumber, pumpkin, melon, watermelon and squash, is due to compounds called cucurbitacins. This bitter taste protects the wild cucumbers against predators that would normally eat them. What's interesting is that the fruit and leaves of wild cucurbits have been used in Indian and Chinese medicine for thousands of years as emetics and purgatives and to treat liver disease. Now, scientists are taking a closer look at their medicinal properties.

In this case, the researchers employed the latest in DNA sequencing technology to identify the exact changes in DNA associated with bitterness. In addition, they tested a great many cucumbers by  taking a taste in order to test whether or not they were bitter.

In the end, the researchers identified nine genes involved in making cucurbitacin. This trait can be traced to two transcription factors that switch on these nine genes in either leaves or the fruit in order to produce cucurbitacin.

Learning what's responsible for cucurbitacins could make it easier to produce them in large enough quantities for clinical trials to test them for medical applications. For example the anti-malarial drug artemisinin was originally derived from traditional Chinese medicine, as well.

The findings are published in the journal Science.