Momordica is a genus of about 45 species of annual or perennial climbing herbaceous plants belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae, natives of tropical Africa and southern Asia. Some species produce floral oils and are visited by specialist pollinators in the apid group Ctenoplectrini.
Cultivation and uses
Momordica are grown in cultivation as ornamental plants, grown for their fleshy fruit, which are oblong to cylindrical in shape, orange to red in colour, prickly or warted externally, and burst when ripe, generally with elastic force, into irregular valves.
UCSB center helps land $24M national center to study environmental impacts of nanotechnology Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400 (University of California - Santa Barbara) The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California at Santa Barbara helped to win the new University of California Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, a five-year, $24 million center co-funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Environmental Protection Agency to study the environmental impacts of nanotechnology. Fat-regenerating 'stem cells' found in mice Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400 (Cell Press) Researchers have identified stem cells with the capacity to build fat. Although they have yet to show that the cells can renew themselves, transplants of the progenitor cells isolated from the fat tissue of normal mice can restore normal fat tissue in animals that are otherwise lacking it.The findings may yield insight into the causes of obesity, a condition characterized by an increase in both the size and number of fat cells. Landmark study unlocks stem cell, DNA secrets to speed therapies Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400 (Florida State University) In a groundbreaking study led by an eminent molecular biologist at Florida State University, researchers have discovered that as embryonic stem cells turn into different cell types, there are dramatic corresponding changes to the order in which DNA is replicated and reorganized.
Momordica balsamina - short description and medicinal uses
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