Abstract: The vanillin-glacial acetic acid method was used to determine and compare the total saponin content in different bitter gourd genotypes (MC₁~MC₁₁) and MC₁₀ tissues (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed to analyze the types of saponin monomers in leaves, fruits and seeds and to determine the content of some monomers at different fruit development stages (ovary stage, young fruit stage, commercial fruit stage and full maturity stage), in order to provide a reference for the development and utilization of medicinal components in bitter gourd. The results showed that: (1) The content of saponins in fruits of 11 different bitter gourd inbred lines ranged from 0.18 g/100 g to 1.6 g/100 g, among which the genotype‘MC₆’ had the highest total saponin content. In inbred genotype‘MC₁₀’, the highest saponin content was detected in the flower tissue, with the level of 1.023 g/100 g, while the lowest content was in the stem tissue. (2) HPLC results showed that five saponin monomers (G, K, L, I and F1) were detected in the bitter gourd fruits, monomer G, K, L and I were detected in the leaves, and only monomers I and C were found in the seeds. (3) The saponin monomer G and K increased with the bitter gourd fruits ripening, and then decreased at late development stages. The highest content of monomer G and K were detected at young fruit stage and commercial fruit stage, respectively.