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Abstract

Plants are widely used for various research purposes, including medicinal, agricultural, and ecological uses. The environment's industrialisation and urbanisation have resulted in a variety of biotic and abiotic challenges that plants must adjust to, such as drought, salt, water deficiency, microbial attack, temperature and pH changes, and heavy metal stress. Many unknown plant species have been tested for their medicinal properties, but many common plants have yet to be fully discovered. Among them is Momordica charantia, which belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family also known as Bitter gourd (Karela) is traditionally known for its medicinal and antioxidant properties. It has known to be a hyperaccumulator of toxic metals. M.charantia produces a great variety of secondary metabolites/phytochemicals which helps them in scavenging abiotic stresses, these secondary metabolites include terpenoid, alkaloids, phenols. Among abiotic stresses heavy metal stress is major concerns. Heavy metal such as copper when induces stress on hyperaccumulating plants bitter gourd. Copper is one of the essential micronutrients required by plants for Carbon assimilation and ATP synthesis. However excess exposure of Cu can cause oxidative stress an ROS production. Momordica charantia plants have developed defense mechanisms against oxidative stress and ROS, which can damage the plants. The secondary metabolites like Phenolics, Terpenes and Steroids, and Alkaloids & Flavonoids are produced by M. charantia which help scavenge heavy metal stress. Excess copper exposure in roots induces detoxification strategies such as metal chelation and transport. The most common ROS are O2, H2O2, and OH-, which are known to cause lipid peroxidation and consequently harm cell membranes. M. charantia produces flavonoids, which have antioxidant effects due to their high ability to chelate metals. The bitter gourd plant produces enzymes like Cu-SOD, CAT, and POX under copper stress, which help reduce the amount of ROS produced. This increases the activity of American Journal of Applied Bio-Technology Research (AJABTR) ====================================================================================== antioxidant enzymes in metal-stressed plants, which is an important part of the plant antioxidant defense mechanism against metal-induced oxidative damage. The relationship between bitter gourd structure and processes of the efficacy of the numerous functional ingredients will likely be explained with much more research on the plants.

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