Pumpkin seed

Pumpkin seeds just scooped from the fruit
Pumpkin seeds after shelling, roasting, and salting

A pumpkin seed, also known as a pepita (from the Mexican Spanish: pepita de calabaza, "little seed of squash"), is the edible seed of a pumpkin or certain other cultivars of squash. The seeds are typically rather flat and asymmetrically oval, and light green in color and may have a white outer hull. Some cultivars are hulless, and are grown only for their seed.[1] The seeds are nutrient-rich, with especially high content of protein, dietary fiber and numerous micronutrients. The word can refer either to the hulled kernel or unhulled whole seed, and most commonly refers to the roasted end product.

Cuisine

Pumpkin seeds are a common ingredient in Mexican cuisine and are also roasted and served as a snack.[2] Marinated and roasted, they are an autumn seasonal snack in the United States, as well as a commercially produced and distributed packaged snack, like sunflower seeds, available year-round. Pepitas are known by their Spanish name (usually shortened), and typically salted and sometimes spiced after roasting (and today also available as a packaged product), in Mexico and other Latin American countries, in the American Southwest, and in speciality and Mexican food stores.

The earliest known evidence of the domestication of Cucurbita dates back 8,000–10,000 years ago, predating the domestication of other crops such as maize and common beans in the region by about 4,000 years. Changes in fruit shape and color indicate intentional breeding of C. pepo occurred by no later than 8,000 years ago.[3][4] The process to develop the agricultural knowledge of crop domestication took place over 5,000–6,500 years in Mesoamerica. Squash was domesticated first, with maize second, followed by beans, all becoming part of the Three Sisters agricultural system.[5][6]

As an ingredient in mole dishes, they are known in Spanish as pipián. A Mexican snack using pepitas in an artisan fashion is referred to as pepitoría. Lightly roasted, salted, unhulled pumpkin seeds are popular in Greece with the descriptive Italian name, passatempo ("pastime").

The pressed oil of the roasted seeds of a Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo var. 'styriaca' is also used in Central and Eastern Europe as cuisine. An example of this is pumpkin seed oil.[7][8] Pumpkin seeds can also be made into a nut butter.

Nutrition

pumpkin and squash seed kernels, roasted, with salt added
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 2,401 kJ (574 kcal)
14.71 g
Sugars 1.29 g
Dietary fiber 6.5 g
49.05 g
Saturated 8.544 g
Monounsaturated 15.734
Polyunsaturated 19.856
29.84 g
Vitamins Quantity %DV†
Thiamine (B1)
6%
0.07 mg
Riboflavin (B2)
13%
0.15 mg
Niacin (B3)
30%
4.43 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)
11%
0.57 mg
Vitamin B6
8%
0.1 mg
Folate (B9)
14%
57 μg
Vitamin C
8%
6.5 mg
Vitamin E
4%
0.56 mg
Vitamin K
4%
4.5 μg
Minerals Quantity %DV†
Calcium
5%
52 mg
Iron
62%
8.07 mg
Magnesium
155%
550 mg
Manganese
214%
4.49 mg
Phosphorus
168%
1174 mg
Potassium
17%
788 mg
Sodium
17%
256 mg
Zinc
80%
7.64 mg
Link to USDA Database entry
†Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient Database

In a 100 gram serving, the seeds are calorie-dense (574 kcal) and an excellent source (20% of the Daily Value, DV, and higher) of protein, dietary fiber, niacin, iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium and phosphorus (table).[9] The seeds are a good source (10–19% DV) of riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid, sodium and potassium (table).

Oil

The oil of pumpkin seeds, a culinary specialty in and important export commodity of Central Europe, is used in cuisine as a salad and cooking oil.

The following are ranges of fatty acid content in C. maxima pepitas[10] (see pumpkin seed oil):

n:unsat Fatty acid name Percentage range
(14:0)Myristic acid0.003–0.056
(16:0)Palmitic acid1.6–8.0
(16:1)Palmitoleic acid0.02–0.10
(18:0)Stearic acid0.81–3.21
(18:1)Oleic acid3.4–19.4
(18:2)Linoleic acid5.1–20.4
(18:3)Linolenic acid0.06–0.22
(20:0)Arachidic acid0.06–0.21
(20:1)Gadoleic acid0–0.035
(22:0)Behenic acid0.02–0.12

The total unsaturated fatty acid concentration ranged from 9% to 21% of the pepita.[10] The total fat content ranged from 11% to 52%. Based on the quantity of alpha-tocopherol extracted in the oil, the vitamin E content of twelve C. maxima cultivar seeds ranged from 4 to 19 mg/100 g of pepita.[10]

Traditional medicine

Pumpkin seeds were once used as an anthelmintic in traditional medicine by indigenous people of North America to expel tapeworms and other intestinal parasites. This led to the seeds being listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia as an antiparasitic from 1863 until 1936.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Song, Y.; Li, J.; Hu, X.; Ni, Y.; Li, Q. (2011). "Structural characterization of a polysaccharide isolated from Lady Godiva pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo lady godiva)". Macromolecular Research. 19 (11): 1172–1178. doi:10.1007/s13233-011-1102-7.
  2. ↑ "Pepitas (Pumpkin Seeds)". GourmetSleuth.com. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Smith, Bruce D. (May 1997). "The Initial Domestication of Cucurbita pepo in the Americas 10,000 Years Ago". Science. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science. doi:10.1126/science.276.5314.932.
  4. ↑ "Cucurbitaceae—Fruits for Peons, Pilgrims, and Pharaohs". University of California at Los Angeles. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  5. ↑ Landon, Amanda J. (2008). "The "How" of the Three Sisters: The Origins of Agriculture in Mesoamerica and the Human Niche". Nebraska Anthropologist. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska-Lincoln: 110–124.
  6. ↑ Bushnell, G. H. S. (1976). "The Beginning and Growth of Agriculture in Mexico". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. London: Royal Society of London. 275 (936): 117–120. doi:10.1098/rstb.1976.0074.
  7. ↑ Fürnkranz, Michael; Lukesch, Birgit; Müller, Henry; Huss, Herbert; Grube, Martin; Berg, Gabriele (2012). "Microbial Diversity Inside Pumpkins: Microhabitat-Specific Communities Display a High Antagonistic Potential Against Phytopathogens". Microbial Ecology. Springer. 63 (2): 418–428. doi:10.2307/41412429. JSTOR 41412429.
  8. ↑ Košťálová, Zuzana; Hromádková, Zdenka; Ebringerová, Anna (August 2009). "Chemical Evaluation of Seeded Fruit Biomass of Oil Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L. var. Styriaca)". Chemical Papers. Springer Versita for Institute of Chemistry. 63 (4): 406–413. doi:10.2478/s11696-009-0035-5.
  9. ↑ "Nutrition Facts, "Seeds, pumpkin and squash seed kernels, roasted, without salt (pepitas)"". nutritiondata.self.com. Retrieved 2012-10-23.
  10. 1 2 3 Stevenson, David G.; Eller, Fred J.; Wang, Liping; Jane, Jay-Lin; Wang, Tong; Inglett, George E. (2007). "Oil and Tocopherol Content and Composition of Pumpkin Seed Oil in 12 Cultivars". Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 55 (10): 4005–13. doi:10.1021/jf0706979. PMID 17439238. The data are found in Tables 1–3 on pp. 4006–4010 of this USDA reference Archived 2011-08-14 at the Wayback Machine..
  11. ↑ Lim, Tong Kwee (2012). "Cucurbita moschata". Edible Medicinal and Non-medicinal Plants. 2. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Science+Business Media. p. 277. ISBN 978-90-481-8660-0.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.