Botany
Kalabasa is a coarse, prostrate
or climbing, annual, herbaceous vine, reaching a length of 4 meters or more. Leaves
are hispid, rounded, 15 to 30 centimeters in diameter, heart-shaped at the base,
shallowly 5-lobed, with finely toothed margins, and often mottled on the upper surface. Flowers are bell-shaped,
erect, yellow and about 12 centimeters long, the corolla limb is about as wide, and 5-toothed. Fruit is large, variable in shape, fleshy, with a yellow pulp.
Seeds are ovoid or oblong, compressed, and about 1.3 centimeters long.
Distribution
- Widely cultivated throughout
the Philippines as a vegetable produce.
- Occasionally found as an escape.
- Planted in all warm countries.
Constituents
• Phytochemical screening yielded carbohydrates, steroids, proteins and amino acids.
• Fruit contains
fat, 10%; pentosan, 5.2 %; protein, 14.2%; and ash, 9/3%.
• Seeds
contain fixed oil, 20-25%; a proteid, edestin. The seed's active principle
is a pepo-resin found in the cotyledons.
• Curcurbitin, a constituent in pumpkin seeds has shown anti-parasitic
activity in the test tube.
• Seed extract yielded carbohydrates, saponins, and flavonoids.
Properties
• Considered anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, diuretic, tonic,
vermifuge.
• Considered antidiabetic, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic.
Parts
used
Fruits, seeds, stalk.
Uses
Nutritional / Edibility
- Widely used as a vegetable in the Philippines, baked, boiled, or stewed.
- Young shoots and flowers used as green vegetable.
-
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.
- Seeds are a good source of protein, zinc, and other vitamins.
- In India, fruit is largely used in curries.
- Fruit makes an excellent substitute for pumpkin in pies.
Folkloric
• In India, fruit pulp is often used as poultice
for carbuncles, boils and ulcers.
• Dried pulp, in the form of confection, used as remedy for hemoptysis and hemorrhages from the pulmonary tract.
• 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, pulped or in emulsion, are used as antihelminthic. Seeds are eaten
fresh to expel worms from the stomach. For tapeworms, seeds are given with sugar at bedtime, followed with a dose of castor oil in the morning.
• Seed oil used as nervine tonic.
• 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. There was alteration in helminthic motility and a protheolithic effect. Egg destruction was noted in the gravid proglottids.
• Antibacterial: Study
of ethanol seed extract showed a spectrum of inhibition on Staph aureus, B. subtilis, P. mirabilis, K. pneumonia and E coli.
• Hypoglycemic: Study
evaluated the hypoglycemic activity of fruit juice and hydro-alcoholic extract of C. maxima in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Both caused significant decrease in hyperglycemia, with the extract showing more hypoglycemic effect than the fruit juice.
• Immunomodulator: Cm seeds were tested for immunomodulatory effects using a dexamethasone-induced immunosuppression model in rabbits. Results showed Cucurbita maxima possesses potential to act as an immunomodulator.
• Antidiabetic / Aerial Parts: Study of antidiabetic activity of methanol extract of aerial parts in Wistar albino rats against STZ-induced diabetes showed fasting blood glucose reduction in a treatment-duration dependent manner.
• Anticancer / Aerial Parts: Study evaluated the antitumor activity of a methanol extract of C. maxima Duschesne aerial parts on Erlich Ascites Carcinoma model in mice. Results revealed significant anticancer activity attributed to its cytotoxicity and antioxidant properties.
• Sterols / Antimicrobial Activity: Study of flowers afforded a 4:1 mixture of spinasterol and 24-ethyl-5a-cholesta-7,22,25-trien-3ß-ol. Results showed slight activity against fungi A. niger and C. albicans and bacteria B. subtilis and P. aeruginosa.
• Anthelmintic / Schistosomiasis: Study of a decoction prepared from C. maxima var. alyaga seeds showed a killing effect on S. japonicum somulae in vitro, with a dose-effect relationship in the mean percentage somula death.
• Hepatoprotective: Study showed the hepatoprotective activity of methanol extracts of C maxima and Legenaria siceraria seeds against paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity.
• Anthelmintic Activity / Comparative Study: Study compared the in-vitro anthelmintic activity of Asparagus racemosus and C. maxima against Indian model. Both ethanolic and aqueous extracts of both plants showed significant anthelminthic activity, with the EE of A. racemosus showing better activity.
Availability
Commercial vegetable
cultivation.
Pumpkin seed oil in the cybermarket.
