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International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
168
International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
ISSN: 2455-4898
Impact Factor: RJIF 5.14
www.foodsciencejournal.com
Volume X; Issue X; November XXXX; Page No. XX-XX
Pumpkin the Functional and therapeutic ingredient: A review
1 Aamir Hussain Dar, *2 S A Sofi, 3 Shafiya rafiq
1 Department of Food Technology, IUST, Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir, India
2, 3 Division of Food Science and Technology, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Abstract
Pumpkin is regarded as valuable vegetables primarily because of the high carotenoid content, the low energetic value, high in
carbohydrates and minerals. Consumption of pumpkin helps to prevent skin diseases, eye disorders reducing cell damage in the
body, cancer and improve immune function. Pumpkin contains biologically active components that include polysaccharides, para-
aminobenzoic acid, fixed oils, sterol, proteins and peptides. Its popular medicinal uses are as antidiabetic, antihypertension,
antitumor, immunomodulation, antibacterial, anti-hypercholesterolemia, intestinal antiparasitia and anti-inflammation as reported
by different researchers. The Pumpkin seed is excellent source of protein and also has pharmacological activities such as anti-
diabetic, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammation activities and antioxidant effects. It has obtained considerable attention in
recent years because of the nutritional and health protective values of the seeds. The antimicrobial activity of pumpkin has many
applications, including preservation, pharmaceuticals, alternative medicine and natural therapies.
Keywords: pumpkin, therauptic, medicinal, antidiabetic
Introduction
The pumpkin is a vegetable crop belonging to the
cucurbitaceae family. This family contains chemicals,
including tetracyclic triterpenes, saponins, proteins, fibers,
polysaccharides and minerals (iron, zinc, manganese, copper,
etc) [1]. The family is one of the largest families in plant
kingdom comprising of highest number of edible plant
species. Seeds embedded in a bright-yellow fibrous endocarp
are large, non endospermic and usually dark red in colour. It is
needed to complement staples in food, supplying
indispensable minerals and vitamins that may not be present in
staple diets. They generally produce more nutrients per unit
land area than staple foods. Pumpkin seed oil typically is a
highly unsaturated oil, with predominantly oleic and linoleic
acids present. Very low levels of linolenic acid or other highly
unsaturated fatty acids are present, providing pumpkin seed oil
with high oxidative stability for storage or industrial purposes
and low free radical production in human diets. Studies of
pumpkin seed oil triacylglycerol positional isomers found that
oleic and linoleic acid distribution patterns are not random [2].
The highly unsaturated fatty acid composition of pumpkinseed
oil makes it well-suited for improving nutritional benefits
from foods. Pumpkin seed oil has been implicated in
providing many health benefits [3]. The most critical health
benefit attributed to pumpkin seed oil is preventing the growth
and reducing the size of the prostate [4, 5]. There is also
evidence that suggests pumpkin seed oil can retard the
progression of hypertension [6] and mitigate
hypercholesterolemia [7] and arthritis [8]. Reduced bladder and
urethral pressure and improved bladder compliance have been
linked to pumpkin seed lipid components [9-12]. Pumpkin seed
oil has been foundto alleviate diabetes by promoting
hypoglycemic activity [3]. Pumpkin seed oil has been found to
provide a significant source of vitamin E (tocopherol) in
Japanese diets [13]. Diets high in pumpkin seeds have also been
associated with lower levels of gastric, breast, lung, and
colorectal cancer [14].There are alsopotential health benefits to
be gained from the various carotenoidpigments found in
pumpkin seed oil [15], and carotenoids from all sources of
pumpkin fruit have been linked to the prevention of prostate
cancer [16, 17]. Despite the aforementioned health benefits,
pumpkin seed oil has been shown to exhibit no antimicrobial
activity [18]. The antioxidant properties of tocopherols could
play a significant role Roasted pumpkin seed oil was found to
contain higher levels of α- and γ-tocopherol than roasted
sunflower oil [19]. Total tocopherol content was 20.1 mg/100 g,
of which 87% was in the γ-form, and no β- or δ-tocopherol
was detected. In addition to good health benefits, pumpkin
seeds are less expensive and are widely distributed.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization of United
Nation (FAO), production of pumpkins, squashes, and gourds
in 2011 was estimated over 24.3 million tons harvested from
1.7 million hectares [20].Cultivation of Cucurbita cultigens (a
variety of pumpkin) as a food source on aglobal scale
attributed to their adaptability in varied climatic conditions
provide great opportunities for increased diversity and market
growth by introducing unexplored forms of existing species
[21]. Pumpkin contains biologically active compounds like
polysaccharides, para-aminobenzoic acid, fixed oils, sterol,
proteins and peptides. The fruits are a good source of
carotenoid and γ - aminobutyric acid [22]. Due to its popular
medicinal uses, researchers have focused over pumpkin from
the last few decades, using modern tools, and credited
pumpkin with antidiabetic, antihypertensive, antitumor,
immunomodulative, antibacterial, anti-hypercholesterolemia,
intestinal antiparasitial, anti-inflammatory and antalgic [23].
International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
169
Recently, functionality and composition of dietary fibre
fractions obtained from pumpkin were investigated [24],
showing the capability of these fibres to be used as food
ingredients or additives to improve food quality. Pumpkin is a
high-yield vegetable, easy to grow, and consequently
inexpensive. Changes in colour, flavour and viscosity that
occur in the course of thermal processing affect the palatibility
of a pumkin pureed product [25].
Chemical composition and bioactive components
The chemical composition of pumpkin varies from one
cultivar or species to other. According to Mi [26] proximate
composition of the pumpkin pulp varied between 75.8 and
91.33% moisture, 0.2 and 2.7% crude protein, 0.47 and 2.1%
crude ash and 3.1 and 13% carbohydrate content. Pumpkin
fruits have many nutritional components including
polysaccharides, proteins, essential amino acids, valuable
antioxidants, carotenoids and minerals. Seeds of pumpkin are
rich in oil and the variability in the oil content is due to its
broad genetic diversity. Pumpkin seeds have a high nutritional
value (table 1), provides good quality oil, and excellent source
of protein. Due to the presence of highly unsaturated fatty
acids, pumpkin seed oil is well-suited for enhancing
nutritional benefits from foods.
Table 1: Bioactive components and their percentage in Pumpkin
seed (nutritive value per 100 g).
Components
nutritive value
Percentage of RDA
Energy
559 kcal
28
Carbohydrates
10.71 g
8
Protein
30.23 g
54
Total fat
49.05 g
164
Cholesterol
0 mg
0
Dietary fibre
6 g
16
Vitamins
Folate
58 µg
15
Niacin
4.987 mg
31
Pa ntothenic acid
0.750 mg
15
Pyridoxine
0.143 mg
11
Pyridoxine
0.143 mg
11
Riboflavin
0.153 mg
12
Thiamine
0.27 mg
23
Vitamin A
16 IU
0.5
Vitamin C
1.9µg
3
Electrolytes
Sodium
7 mg
0.5
Potassium
809 mg
17
Minerals
Calcium
46 mg
4.5
Copper
1.343 mg
159
Iron
8.82 mg
110
Magnesium
592 mg
148
Manganese
4.543 mg
19
Phosphorus
1,233 mg
176
Selenium
9.4 µg
17
Zinc
7.81 mg
71
Phytonutrients
Carotene-b
9 µg
-
Cryptoxanthin-b
1 µg
-
Lutein–zeaxanthin
74 µg
-
USDA-National Nutrient Data base
Nutritionaland dietary uses of Pumpkin
Pumpkins are consumed as freshly boiled and steamed or in
processed form like soup and curry. It is high in β-carotene,
which gives it yellow or orange color. Beta-carotene in plants
that have a pleasant yellow-orange color is a major source of
vitamin A[27]. It is also high in carbohydrates and minerals.
Consumption of carotene containing foods helps in the
prevention of dermatological ailments, eye disorders and
certain cancers [28]. Incorporation of β -carotene rich
ingredients in the form of pumpkin powder or flour in food
products is therefore considered a very effective approach to
eradicate vitamin-A related health problems [29].
Nutritional and health protective value of pumpkin draws
considerable attention of food scientists in recent years
[30].Food is one of our most basic needs, which provides us
energy and also nourishes all our internal organs of the body.
Plants produce oil seeds, grains, fruits and vegetables [31].
Pumpkin has gained a considerable attention in recent years
for its nutritional and health promoting values. Pumpkin is
cost effective and a nutrient rich source; the pumpkin seed
flour incorporated complementary food mix is highly nutritive
and economical with highly acceptable sensory attributes [32].
Functional components and their properties
Pumpkin seed oil is rich in many antioxidants and essential
nutritional componentslike essential fatty acids (FAs),
vitamins, squalene, carotenoids, tocopherols, phytoestrogenes,
phytosterols, polyphenols, hydrocarbon, triterpenoids
andselenium [33]. Pumpkins are rich source of calcium, iron,
vitamin A, oil (25 -55%), rich in unsaturated oleic and linoleic
acids), protein (25 - 35%) with high amounts of arginine,
aspartate andglutamic acid, but deficient in lysine and
sulphurcontaining amino acids [34].Pumpkin seeds have been
used as an anthelmintic agent and proved effective in the
treatment of functional disorders of the bladder [35].The
healing powers of plants have been reported fromcenturies;
about 80% of the available therapeutic substances have their
origin from medicinal plants [36]. Scientists proved that the
plants have medicinal properties for their biological activities
ranging from antimicrobial to antitumor. The antimicrobial
activity of plants has many applications in food preservation,
pharmaceuticals, alternative medicine and natural therapies
[37]. While some of the oils used on the basis of efficient
antimicrobial properties have well documented in vitro
activity [38]. The seed of pumpkin has pharmacological
activities such asanti-diabetic [39], antifungal, antibacterial and
antiinflammation activities, and antioxidant effects [40]. The
most critical health benefit attributed to pumpkin seed oil is
stopping the growth and reducing the size of the prostate [41].
Fruits and vegetables are essential ingredients of a healthy
diet, and their consumption as food could help to prevent wide
range of diseases [42]. The positive health effects of fruit and
vegetable have been credited to the relatively high antioxidant
concentration of fruits and vegetables [43]. Antioxidants
naturally occur in fruits and vegetables. They are
micronutrients that posses ability to neutralize free radicals or
their actions [44]. Free radical have been implicated in the
etiology of several major humans ailments, including cancer,
cardiovascular disease, neural disorders, diabetes and arthritis
[45]. Utilization of fruits and vegetables has been increased
International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
170
rapidly due to their health benefits. However, the perishable
nature of fruits and vegetables and over-dependency of human
on fewer plant species generate immense pressure on the
industries to supply bulk of fresh fruits and vegetables to the
emerging population. Such increased demand can only be
fulfilled by either using the technology to prevent the
deterioration of commodity after harvest or to introduce
underutilized fruits and vegetables for their commercial
utilization. These less significant underutilized fruits remained
unexplored for and remained confined mainly to natural wild,
semi-wild and semi domesticated conditions albeit with large
ever increasing variability. Besides their importance as
potential horticulture species these plants are incidentally store
houses of genes for adaptation to hostile climatic conditions,
salt tolerance, diseases tolerance and several important
nutritional values. Further, efforts to cultivate these plants
have not been explored as their economic potential has either
been not completely explored or such products are confined
mostly limited to traditional usage [46]. Many of the indigenous
tropical and temperate fruits and vegetables have still
remained underexploited due to the unawareness of their
potential uses and market demand. These species have many
uses as fruits, vegetables and also have significant therapeutic
and medicinal properties [47]. Pumpkin is a essential food
ingredient as part of a diet and as a medicinal therapeutic [48].
It is believed that pumpkin is a healthy and functional
vegetable as it is rich in phenolics, flavonoids, vitamins (in-
cluding β-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin B2, α-tocopherol,
vitamin C, vitamin E), amino acids, carbohydrates and
minerals (especially potassium) and has low energy content
and a large amount of fiber. Pumpkin may prove to be an
excellent source of provitamin a carotenoids for the
prevention of vitamin A deficiency [49]. Besides the provitamin
a activity the special physiological functionality of several
carotenoids as well as the prevention of cancer made it
mandatory to enhance the knowledge about the content of
carotenoids in foods [50].
Therapeutic and Health Promoting Properties
Anti-carcinogenic effect
Cancer is a rapidly growing health problem; it presents the
biggest challenge to researchers and medical professionals and
has been selected for various prevention and therapeutic
strategies. The dietary intake of many vegetables and fruits
has been found to reduce the risk of occurrence of cancer [51].
Diets high in pumpkin seeds have also been associated with
lower risk of gastric, breast, lung and colorectal cancers [52].
There are also potential health benefits, including anti-
carcinogenic effects, to be gained from the various carotenoid
pigments found in pumpkin seed oil [53]. The carotenoids from
pumpkin fruits have been linked to the prevention of prostate
cancer [54, 55]. There are still various controversies regarding
the use of juices of pumpkin fruits in cancer situations; for
example, boiled pumpkin juice significantly suppressed the
incidence of aberrant cells while fresh pumpkin juice
enhanced it [56].It was reported that pumpkin fruit extracts
markedly reduced tumour weight in S-180-bearing mice [56].
Cheong et al., [56]. Isolated some basic proteins from pumpkin
seeds named MAP2 (MW 2249 Da) and MAP4 (MW 4650
Da), and reported inhibition of the growth of leukemia K-562
cells. Moreover, other proteins from pumpkin seeds were
reported to inhibit melanoma proliferation [57]. Xia et al. [58].
Isolated a novel ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) called
moschatin from the mature seeds of pumpkin (C. moschata)
and a novel immunotoxin moschatin-Ng76 was prepared
successfully which efficiently inhibits the growth of targeted
melanoma cells M21 with an IC50 (50 % inhibitory
concentration) of 0·04 nM, 1500 times lower than that of free
moschatin. Recently, Hou et al. [59] isolated a novel type 1 RIP
designated cucurmosin from the sarcocarp of C. moschata that
exhibits strong cytotoxicity to three cancer cell lines of both
human and murine origin, besides rRNA N-glycosidase
activity.
Anti-diabetic activity
With the rapidly increasing cases of diabetes and its high risk
interms of economic perspective on world population, the
research for safer and inexpensive medicines for the treatment
of diabetes is new challenge and innovative aid to the era of
medicine technology. The use of herbal sources with bioactive
components such as pumpkin is one among them. Therefore,
various studies for the anti-diabetic potential of pumpkin is
one of them, which is a normally cultivated plant in farms and
its fruits are used for human consumption in diabetic
conditions [60]. Local healers recommend the ingestion of
crude aqueous extract of pumpkin fruits for the treatment of
type 2 diabetes or non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus [61].
In various other reports, the pumpkin exhibited acute
hypoglycaemic activity (blood sugar lowering) in temporarily
hyperglycaemic rabbits, in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits,
and in type 2 diabetic patients [62, 63, 64]. Xia & Wang [65]
demonstrated that pumpkin has hypoglycaemic activity like a
standard drug (tolbutamide) in healthy animals with temporary
hyperglycaemia and in mild diabetic animals, but not in severe
diabetic animals. They suggested that these effects might be
due to either increased pancreatic insulin secretion from the
existing b-cells or insulin release from the bound form. D-
chiro-Inositol was identified in pumpkin (especially in
Cucurbita ficifolia) and this compound has been considered as
an insulin action mediator (insulin sensitiser) [66]. However,
the detailed mechanism of antidiabetic action of this
component remains to be clarified. Various other components
have also been isolated from pumpkin and analysed for anti-
diabetic potential. For example, Kwon et al. [61]. reported that
phenolic phytochemicals of pumpkin have anti-diabetic
effects in terms of b-glucosidase and a-amylase inhibition.
Pumpkin also has hypotensive effects in terms of angiotensin
I-converting enzyme-inhibitory activities. Furthermore,
Quanhong et al. [67]. also investigated hypoglycaemic
substances from pumpkin, and they isolated protein-bound
polysaccharide by activity-guided isolation from water-soluble
substances of the pumpkin fruits. When this protein-bound
polysaccharide from pumpkin fruits (PBPP) was evaluated for
hypoglycaemic activity and effects on serum insulin levels in
alloxan diabetic rats, and it was found that PBPP can increase
the levels of serum insulin, reduce the blood glucose levels
and improve tolerance of glucose in alloxan-induced diabetic
animals. By considering all these facts, it can be concluded
that pumpkin has potential anti-diabetic properties, which may
suggest the inclusion of this plant in anti-diabetic regimens to
International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
171
treat human diabetes. However, further studies in detail are
warranted to explore the mechanistic and therapeutic potential
of pumpkins for diabetes.
Antimicrobial and Antifungal effects
Despite the aforementioned health benefits, pumpkin seed oil
has been shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity[68]. Pumpkin
extracts showed a broad spectrum antimicrobial activity
againstseveral bacteria [69].Un-irradiated pumpkin seeds were
effective against Rhodotorula rubra and Candida albicans at
0.5 and 1.0 mg/ml concentrations [70].
Anti-inflammatory effects
Pumpkin-fortified foods are considered as a good source of
anti-inflammatory substances, which can help in many
diseases such as arthritis[71]. Pumpkin seed oil significantly
inhibited adjuvantinduced arthritis in rats, similar to a well-
known anti-inflammatory substance called indomethacin[72].
The beta-carotene in pumpkin seeds has anti-inflammatory
properties and regular consumption of pumpkin seeds can
protect against joint inflammation [73].
Conclusion
Pumpkin provides valuable source of carotenoids that have a
major role in the nutrition in the form of pro-vitamin A. Being
rich source of carotenoids pumpkin-based food products can
help in preventing skin diseases, eye disorders and cancer.
Incorporation of β -carotene rich ingredients in the
development of food products is considered a cost-effective
approach to vitamin-A related health problems. Moreover, the
anti-diabetic properties and anticancerousproperties of
pumpkin have generated interest in consuming this fruit and
utilizing it as a source of various bioactives for the
development of value added products and nutraceuticals.
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