Pumpkin seed oil factory in Prekmurje, Slovenia

Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca

Dried seed of Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca

Pumpkin seed oil (Kernöl or Kürbiskernöl in German, bučno olje in Slovenian, bučino ulje or bundevino ulje in Croatian, ulei de dovleac in Romanian, and tökmag-olaj in Hungarian), a culinary specialty of south eastern Austria (Styria), eastern Slovenia (Styria and Prekmurje), Central Transylvania, Orastie-Cugir region Romania (Transylvania), north western Croatia (esp. Međimurje), adjacent regions of Hungary, is a European Union Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product.

Today the oil is an important export commodity of Austria and Slovenia. It is made by pressing roasted, hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), from a local variety of pumpkin, the "Styrian oil pumpkin" (Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca, also known as var. oleifera). It has been produced and used in Styria's southern parts at least since the 18th century. The earliest confirmed record of oil pumpkin seeds in Styria (from the estate of a farmer in Gleinstätten) dates to February 18, 1697.

The viscous oil is light to very dark green to dark red in colour depending on the thickness of the observed sample. The oil appears green in thin layer and red in thick layer. Such optical phenomenon is called dichromatism.^[1] Pumpkin oil is one of the substances with strongest dichromatism. Its Kreft's dichromaticity index is -44.^[2] Used together with yoghurt, the colour turns to bright green and is sometimes referred to as "green-gold".

Culinary uses[link]

Pumpkin seed oil has an intense nutty taste and is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Browned oil has a bitter taste. Pumpkin seed oil serves as a salad dressing when combined with honey or olive oil. The typical Styrian dressing consists of pumpkin seed oil and cider vinegar. But the oil is also used for desserts, giving ordinary vanilla ice cream a nutty taste. It is considered a real delicacy in Austria, and few drops are added to pumpkin soup and other local plates, including, as mentioned, vanilla ice cream. Using it as a cooking oil, however, destroys its essential fatty acids.^[3]

Folk medicine[link]

Claims, based on local folk medicine, suggesting usefulness of the oil in the prevention and treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia may be backed by some studies showing clinically proven efficacy^[4] (particularly along with Serenoa repens, saw palmetto, and Pygeum africanum) according to the criteria of evidence-based medicine.^{[citation needed]}

Pumpkin seed oil is most commonly used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.^{[citation needed]}

Some studies have found pumpkin seeds to prevent arteriosclerosis and regulate cholesterol levels.^{[citation needed]}

Pumpkin seed oil, commonly prescribed in German folk medicine, remedies parasitic infestations of the intestinal tract such as tapeworms.^{[citation needed]}

In Orastie region in Transylvania, the pumpkin-seed oil was also used as a remedy for intestinal track parasitic infestation but as an added ingredient was added fresh chopped garlic, both combined as a powerful cleanser combination.

Seed types and oil[link]

Other types of pumpkin seed oil are also marketed worldwide. International producers use white seeds with shells and this produces a cheaper white oil. New producers of seeds are located in China and India.

An analysis^[5] of the oil extracted from the seeds of each of twelve cultivars of C. maxima yielded the following ranges for the percentage of several fatty acids:

The study did not distinguish between positional isomers (e.g. ω-3 versus ω-6 linolenic acid). The sum of myristic and palmitic acid (cholesterogenic saturated fatty acids) content ranged from 12.8 to 18.7%. The total unsaturated acid content ranged from 73.1 to 80.5%. The very long chain fatty acid (> 18 carbon atoms) content ranged from 0.44 to 1.37%.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pumpkin seed oil

• Record on the EU Commission Agriculture PDO/PGI website^{[clarification needed]}

Pumpkin seeds just scooped from the fruit

Pumpkin seeds after shelling, roasting, and salting

Pepita (from Mexican Spanish: pepita de calabaza, "little seed of squash") is a Spanish culinary term for the pumpkin seed, the edible seed of a pumpkin or other cultivar of squash (genus Cucurbita). The seeds are typically rather flat and asymmetrically oval, and light green in color inside a white hull. The word can refer either to the hulled kernel or unhulled whole seed, and most commonly refers to the roasted end product. The pressed oil of the roasted seeds of a specific pumpkin variety is also used in Central and Eastern European cuisine (see Pumpkin seed oil).^{[citation needed]}

Pepitas are a popular ingredient in Mexican cuisine and are also roasted and served as a snack.^[1] Marinated and roasted, they are an autumn seasonal favorite in the rural 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. In the Americas, they have been eaten since at least the time of the Aztecs^{[citation needed]} and probably much earlier, since squash was one of the three earliest plant domesticates in the Western Hemisphere, along with maize (corn) and common beans (collectively the Native American agricultural "Three Sisters", originating in Mexico).

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").

Nutrition[link]

The seeds are also good sources of protein, as well as iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, copper,^[2] and potassium. In regards to iron, 25 grams of pepitas (about a US quarter-cup) can provide over 20 percent of the recommended daily iron intake^{[citation needed]}.

In 2007, Stevenson, et al., of the USDA's New Crops Products Research Unit searched the primary literature for information about the lipid content of pepitas, and then grew and analyzed pepitas from seven cultivars of C. maxima.^[3] They found the following ranges of fatty acid content in C. maxima pepitas:

The reported concentration of myristate and palmitate (the cholestrogenic fatty acids) for the pepitas ranged from 1.6% to 4.9%. The total unsaturated fatty acid concentration ranged from 9% to 21% of the pepita. 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 the twelve C. maxima cultivar seeds ranged from 4 to 19 mg/100 g of pepita.

Nutraceutical uses[link]

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The seeds (and seed oil, see below) of pumpkins, such as Cucurbita pepo varieties have been subject to a great deal of research, especially into the treatment of prostate ailments.^[4]

Whole seeds or kernels[link]

According to the USDA,^[5] one gram of roasted pepita contain 5.69 mg L-tryptophan and one gram of pepita protein contains 17.2 mg^[6] of L-tryptophan. One cup of milk contains 183 mg. This high tryptophan content makes pepita of interest to researchers studying the treatment of anxiety disorders.^[7] Some eat the seeds as preventative measure against onset of anxiety attacks, clinical depression and other mood disorders.

Some studies^[which?] have also found pumpkin seeds to prevent arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and to regulate cholesterol levels in the body.

A 2011 Egyptian study found that in rats, pumpkin seed oil has anti-hypertensive and cardio-protective properties.^[8]

A 2009 double-blind, placebo-controlled Korean study found that in men suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia (n=47), pumpkin seed oil is an effective treatment.^[9]

The oil[link]

The oil of pumpkin seeds, a culinary speciality in (and important export commodity of) Central European cuisine as a salad oil and a cooking oil, is also used to treat irritable bowel syndrome and various other ailments, both in folk medicine and in modern medical practice and research.

Long an Eastern European folk remedy for the prostate problems of men, the oil has in fact been shown to improve symptoms associated with an enlarged prostate due to benign prostatic hyperplasia. Components in pumpkin seed oil appear to interrupt the triggering of prostate cell multiplication by testosterone and DHT. It is questionable whether eating the seeds whole in snack quantities, rather than taking therapeutic doses of the concentrated oil, would provide any prostate benefit.^[2][4]

In German folk medicine, the oil is also used to quell parasitic infestations such as tapeworms.^{[citation needed]}

In Vietnam, consumption of relatively large numbers of seeds was seen to increase the evacuation rate of thread worms from the gastrointestinal tract^{[citation needed]}.

See also[link]

• List of edible seeds

References[link]