Abstract:

The bitter gourd resources have the characteristics of diversity in morphological traits and nutritional contents. The purpose of the present study was to compare the variation of different traits based on the observation of 26 morphological traits and five nutritional parameters in the fruits of 44 bitter gourd varieties (strains). The results showed that: (1) For morphological traits, there were significant differences in fruit shape, fruit color, fruit weight, tumor size of melon, and number of melon seeds, but no significant differences were found in variations of branches, melon width and seed pattern among varieties(strains). (2)For nutritional contents, no significant differences were found in water content, but the greatest differences were found in protein content, and followed by vitamin C content among varieties (strains).