Pumpkin
Pumpkin is an annual plant that has a strong root system. The stem of the pumpkin is covered with short and stiff hairs. The leaves of the plant are alternate and toothed, large in size, located on long petioles. The yellow and single bright pumpkin flowers smell very nice. Pumpkin fruits are large, spherical, they are white or gray. The pumpkin fruit can be up to 50 kg in weight. The flesh is orange, loose and has few fibers. The fruits of the plant are not only round in shape, since its shape depends on the type of pumpkin.
The pumpkin blooms in early to mid-summer, and the fruit ripens from late summer to September. The pumpkin is common in Russia, the USA, Mexico and other countries of the world. Today, more than 200 pumpkin varieties are grown everywhere.
Composition and calorie content
- Fats: 0.1 g
- Proteins: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 6.5 g
- Water: 91.6 g
- Ash: 0.8 g
- Cellulose: 1.5 g
Vitamins (per 100 g): |
amount |
% RDA |
| Beta carotene | 3100 mcg | 62% |
| Lutein + Zeaxanthin | 1500 mcg | 25% |
| Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) | 9 mg | 13% |
Minerals (in 100 g): |
amount |
% RDA |
| Vanadium | 89.9 μg | 224.8% |
| Silicon | 30 mg | 100% |
| Rubidium | 68.9 mcg | 68.9% |
| Boron | 15.85 mcg | 22.6% |
| Potassium | 340 mg | fourteen% |
| Copper | 130 mcg | 13% |
| Cobalt | 1 μg | ten% |
Other important connections:
- Phytosterols - 12 mg (21.8% of the RDI)
- Purines - 2.8 mg (1.7% of the RDI)
- Oxalic acid - 22 mg (5.5% of the RDI)
Complete chemical composition ➤
Useful properties of pumpkin
Due to the content of many useful substances in pumpkin, it is used in the treatment of various diseases. The pectin in pumpkin removes cholesterol from the body. Also pumpkin pectin is used for atherosclerosis. Pumpkin juice helps relieve constipation. A decoction of plant flowers is effective in the presence of wounds. Pumpkin is used as a diuretic by people with heart edema. Pumpkin pulp is used for tuberculosis, jaundice, gout, neurosis. Pumpkin has antihelminthic, laxative and diuretic properties. The plant has an antiemetic effect in case of toxicosis in pregnant women and in people with seasickness.
Pumpkin application
Traditional medicine uses pumpkin pulp and seeds in the treatment of various diseases. Pumpkin seeds are used for worms as an anthelmintic agent. The pulp of the plant helps to normalize metabolism, cures dropsy, kidney and liver diseases. Fresh pumpkin juice can help relieve insomnia. Pumpkin seeds are beneficial for mental activity and for inflammation of the prostate gland. For these purposes, you just need to eat 15 seeds daily.
Slimming pumpkin. Pumpkin helps to eliminate toxins from the body and get rid of extra pounds. For this purpose, you need to prepare the usual pumpkin jam. To do this, take 1.5 kg of pumpkin, 1 orange and half a lemon. Peel the pumpkin and cut it into pieces. Cut the orange and lemon into pieces, combine with pumpkin and simmer. After the first time we put on the fire a second time to cook - and after a couple of hours the jam is ready. It is consumed daily three times a day.
Pumpkin mask. Take pumpkin pulp and remove seeds. Apply it tightly to the affected areas. Hold the pumpkin pulp for about 15 minutes, then rinse the wound with warm water using a cotton swab.
Pumpkin from worms. Take 150 grams of green pumpkin seeds and grind in a mortar. Add 50 grams of honey and mix. All this gruel must be eaten on an empty stomach in an hour. 3 hours after taking the pumpkin medicine, you need to drink a laxative and do an enema.
Pumpkin for kidney, liver or heart disease. To do this, take 15 grams of pumpkin stalks and cut into small pieces. Add 2 grams of propolis there, pour 50 ml of water and put on fire for a quarter of an hour. This amount of broth is consumed per day.
A decoction of pumpkin seeds. To prepare the broth, take raw seeds and clean them, then grind them. Fill the product with water, the amount of which is twice as much as the seeds. We put the composition in a water bath for 2 hours. After pressing the mixture, it is left to cool. Straining the finished broth, take it 1 tablespoon for half an hour. After taking this broth, you need to eat only dairy and plant products for 2 days.
Pumpkin oil properties
Pumpkin oil is obtained from the seeds of the plant using the cold-pressed method. Pumpkin seed oil contains essential and fatty oils, pectins, vitamins, selenium and sterols. Pumpkin oil can reduce swelling, improves metabolic processes in tissues, and also helps with burns, as it relieves inflammation. Pumpkin seed oil is used for proctological diseases as it relieves pain, itching and burning.
Pumpkin oil contains a lot of vitamin A, so it is recommended to use it for eye diseases. Pumpkin oil can be used to treat prostate adenoma and prostatitis. Pumpkin seed oil has wound healing and regenerating properties. In addition, pumpkin oil is used for diseases that are accompanied by impaired lipid metabolism in the body, such as, for example, obesity, eczema or dermatitis.
Traditional pumpkin medicine recipes
Pumpkin is one of the record-holding plants for the presence of a variety of useful substances. It contains a lot of fluorine and zinc, a high content of calcium and potassium, phosphorus and copper, and a high proportion of iron. The pulp is rich in vitamins, including C and B group, as well as carotene. All this makes the fragrant yellow berry one of the important ingredients of traditional medicine.
Against parasites
With the help of pumpkin seeds, they have long fought against parasites: pinworms and roundworms, tapeworms and round worms.
- Recipe 1: take 300 grams of peeled pumpkin seeds, grind them and mix well with fifty to one hundred grams of honey. They are eaten a little in one hour. After three hours, you need to drink a laxative, after 30 minutes - do an enema. Children are given less volume.
- Recipe 2 for getting rid of parasites - decoction. After cleaning one hundred twenty to two hundred grams of raw seeds, grind well, add 250-400 ml of water. The dishes with the mixture are kept in a water bath for two hours. After pressing the broth, leave to cool for a while, filter. Drink for half an hour gradually, one tablespoon at a time. Two hours later, a salt-based laxative (no oil) is taken. And for two days it is better to eat vegetables, fruits, cereals and dairy products.
Other traditional medicine recipes using pumpkin
- Pumpkin pulp has been shown to be a mild laxative and diuretic. And also to activate metabolism and inflammation. Pumpkin pulp compresses are used if someone is burned, for rashes and eczema.
- The pulp cooked with honey is used for liver and kidney pathologies, diseases of the bladder, cardiovascular diseases, accompanied by edema.
- The baked pulp does not irritate the kidney tissue, it is a diet food. It helps to cope with nausea in pregnant women.
- Porridge boiled from pumpkin, honey and millet has a beneficial effect on the intestines. It is used for colitis, if there are difficulties in cleansing the intestines.
- A good diuretic and choleretic effect is obtained if there are half a kilogram of raw pumpkin every day for three to four months. You can take baked or boiled - one and a half to three kilograms.
- The broth also works, which is prepared for fifteen minutes, taking fifteen to twenty grams of pumpkin stalks and two glasses of water. You need to drink every day.
- For pyelonephritis, acute or chronic cystitis and certain types of urethritis, pumpkin porridge is "prescribed": fifty grams twice a day. Fresh pumpkin juice is good - 2-3 doses daily.
- Insomnia goes away when you take pumpkin juice or its decoction with honey.
- A decoction of flowers is applied to the wounds. A good diuretic is a decoction of cuttings.
- Tibetan physicians consider pumpkin a medicinal food and use it when the heart, liver and kidneys hurt. She heals gastritis with high acidity, stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers. Recipe for Daily Dose: 15 grams of stalks, finely chopped, boiled for 15 minutes with 2 grams of propolis in two glasses of water.
Contraindications to the use of pumpkin
Pumpkin has no contraindications, but individual intolerance does take place.
The author of the article: Sokolova Nina Vladimirovna | Phytotherapist
Education: Diploma in "General Medicine" and "Therapy" received at the Pirogov University (2005 and 2006). Advanced training at the Department of Phytotherapy at the Peoples' Friendship University of Moscow (2008).
