Botany
Coarse, prostrate
or climbing, annual, hearbaceoous vine, 4 meters or more. Leaves
are hispid, rounded, 15 to 30 cms, heart-shaped at the base,
shallowly 5-lobed, with finely toothed margins. Flowers are bell-shaped,
erect, yellow. The fruit is large, fleshy, with a yellow pulp.
The seeds are ovoid, or oblong, compreseed.
Distribution
Grown throughout
the Philippines as a vegetable produce.
Chemical
constituents and properties
• Fruit contains
fat, 10%; pentosan, 5.2 %; protein, 14.2%; and ash, 9/3%. The seed
contain fixed oil, 20-25%; a proteid, edestin. The seed's active principle
is a pepo-resin found in the cotyledons. The saponin in seeds believed
to have antihelminthic effect.
• Considered antiinflammatory, antipyretic, diuretic, tonic,
vermifuge.
• Curcurbitin, a constituent in pumpkin seeds has shown anti-parasitic
activity in the test tube.
Parts
used and preparation
Fruits, seeds, stalk.
Uses
Nutritional
A vegetable which is
an excellent source of vitamin B. The shoots and flowers contain calcium,
phosphorus and iron. The fruit contains calcium and vitamin A.
Folkloric
• The fruit pulp is used as poultice
for carbuncles, boils and ulcers.
• For venomous insect bites, the fruit stalk in contact with
the ripe gourd is cut, dried, and made into a paste and
applied to venomous insect bites, especially centipedes.
• The fresh seeds are used as antihelminthic; seeds are eaten
fresh to expel worms from the stomach.
• In Brazil, pumpkin seeds are
used for stomach pain, as antiinflammatory, antipyretic and anthelminthic.
• In China, pumpkin seeds have
been used for acute schistosomiasis.
• In Thailand, seeds used for kidney
stones.
Others
• Seed contains an oil. Used for lighting.
• Fruit can provide a face-mask for dry skins.
Studies
• Antimicrobial / Anti-inflammatory /
Neuro Effects : Extracts of leaves, fruits and flowers of
C. maxima were subjected to pharmacologic and microbiological studies.
Results showed complete inhibition of B. subtilis and partial inhibition
of E. coli. Fruits and leaves showed neuro effects: decrease motor
activity, ataxia, temporary palpebral ptosis among others. Ethyl acetate
extracts of flowers showed decreased respiratory rate, analgesia,
diarrhea and exophthalmos.
• Toxicity evaluation of Cucurbita maxima
seed extract in mice: Hydroalcoholic extract of CM seeds
had a considerable safety margin and devoid of acute toxicity.
• Antigenotoxicity / Spinasterol:
Study on antigenotoxic constituents of squash flowers
showed isolate SQFwB2D (spinasterol) from the chloroform extract to possess the
most antigenotoxicity, decreasing the mutagenicity of tetracycline
by 64.7%.
• Pumpkin Seed Oil
/ BPH: Pumpkin seed oil has been approved by
the Germany's Commission E since 1985 for the treatment of BPH (benign
prostatic hyperplasia).
• Antiparasitic: Study
showed that pumpkin seed can produce an antihelminthic effect.
Availability
Commercial vegetable
cultivation.
Pumpkin seed oil in the cybermarket.
