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Botany
Pakuan is a spreading,
hairy, tendril-bearing annual vine. Leaves are long-stalked,
oblong-ovate, 8 to 20 cm long, deeply 3- to 7-lobed, pinnatifid
with usually narrowed segments. The flowers are monoecious, yellow, and
about 2 cm in diameter, occurring singly in axils of the leaves.
Fruit is very large, smooth, ellipsoid to oblong, light green with
irregular dark green-mottled stripes, sometimes covered with a white, waxy bloom, about 30 cm long. The flesh
is white, yellowish, pink or red; crisp, soft and juicy. Seeds
are compressed, sometimes red, usually black.
Distribution
Widely cultivated
in the Philippines.
Parts
utilized
Seeds, roots.
Constituents
The skin contains
a fixed oil, arachidic acid, and traces of copper.
The seeds contain oil, 15 to 45%, made up of glycerides of linoleic
acid, oleic acid and palmitic and stearic acids. The oil contains
a small amount of phytosterol
A study suggests the active principle in the seed is a glucoside-saponin
named cucurbocitrin.
Flesh of fruit contains saccharose, dextrose, levulose, invert sugar, citrullin, lycopin, carotin, etc.
Properties
Seeds considered cooling, demulcent, diuretic, vermifuge, nutritive, pectoral and pectic.
The crude extract of seeds believed to have a lowering blood
pressure effect.
Uses
Edibility / Nutrition
Widely eaten in the Philippines.
Not high in nutritive value; only a fair source of calcium and iron.
Seeds are oily; sometimes used as substitute for peanuts.
Folkloric
- The juice of
the roots used for hemorrhage after abortion.
- Juice of fruit use as antiseptic in typhus fever.
- With cumin and sugar, juice is used as a cooling drink in strangury and affections of the urinary organs, such as gonorrhea; also used for hepatic congestion and intestinal catarrh.
- In China, rind of the fruit is powdered after drying and incineration and
used for aphthous mouth sores.
- Pulp is used as a drastic purgative.
- In Tonkin, pericarp used for diarrhea.
- Seeds used to alleviate symptoms of acute cystitis.
- In traditional Chinese medicine, used to relieve scanty urination, excessive thirst, for treating icteric hepatitis and urinary tract infections.
Studies
• Hypothyroidism: Protective
role of Mangifera indica, Cucumis melo and Citrullus vulgaris peel extracts
in chemically induced hypothyroidism: Results showed thryroid
stimulatory and antiperoxidase roles.
• Mosquitocidal
/ Repellent: Mosquitocidal and repellent activity of the leaf
extract of Citrullus vulgaris (cucurbitaceae) against the malarial vector,
Anopheles stephensi liston (diptera culicidae): The C vulgaris
plant showed insect growth regulatory activity against Anopheles stephensi.
• Thyroid Stimulation
/ Regulation of Lipid Peroxidation: Study of the fruit peel extracts of M indica, C melo and Citrullus vulgaris showed stimulatory thyroid activity in PTU-induced hypothyroid animals and lipid peroxidation inhibition. but only when treated individually. A parallel increase in hepatic and renal LPO was observed when used in combination.
Caution !
•
Watermelon-induced citrullinemia and urea
cylce disorders: Elevated plasma citrulline and arginine due
to consumption of Citrullus vulgaris (watermelon): A Case of
a 19-month old with developmental delay who developed watermelon-induced
citrullinemia. Its laboratory hallmarks are elevattion of plasma citruline
and moderate elevation of plasma arginine.
• Current dietary management
of citrullinemia and other urea cycle disorders include restriction
of protein, sodium benzoate, and certain dietary supplements or essential
amino acids with postblock intermediates such as arginine. . . one fruit
that should be avoided is watermelon (Citrullus
vulgaris).
Availability
Cultivated.
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