WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants - travolekar.ru

Fructus Momordicae
Adverse reactions
The reported adverse effects of the crude drug include hypoglycaemic
coma and convulsions in children, increases in -glutamyl transferase and
alkaline phosphatase levels, and headaches (53).
Contraindications
Owing to potential abortifacient effects and possible teratogenicity (54,
55), the seeds of the crude drug should not be taken during pregnancy.
Owing to reported adverse events such as severe hypoglycaemia and
convulsions in children, the crude drug and its preparations should not be
administered to children or taken during breastfeeding (53).
Warnings
Patients with liver disorders should seek advice from their health care
professional before taking any crude drug preparation.
Precautions
Drug interactions
The fruit and preparations thereof may have additive effects when taken
with other glucose-lowering agents; however these interactions need to
be investigated (53).
Pregnancy: teratogenic effects
Momorcharins, isolated from the seeds of the crude drug have been
shown to induce early and midterm abortions in mice and were teratogenic
in cultured mouse embryos at the early organogenesis stage. Morphological
abnormalities were observed in the head, trunk and limbs of
the embryos (54, 55).
The genotoxic potential of extracts of the crude drug was assessed in
the Salmonella typhimurium microsome activation assay and the alkaline
single-cell gel electrophoresis (COMET) assay. The extract did not produce
a positive response in strains TA98 and TA100 with or without metabolic
activation, but produced an increase above negative control values
in the COMET assay (56).
Pregnancy: non-teratogenic effects
See Contraindications.
Breastfeeding mothers
See Contraindications.
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