Watermelon seeds are the seeds of watermelon, a plant of the Cucurbitaceae family.

Watermelon seeds can be used for food or medicine, belonging to the Cucurbitaceae plant watermelon, in general, the seeds in the watermelon we eat every day can also be made into watermelon seeds, but the size is too small, so the watermelon seeds produced on the market usually come from special varieties of watermelon, such as the hit melon in Lanzhou.

The hit melon, also known as seed melon, produced melon seeds, black side of white heart, full of particles, the slice shape is larger, so the international market has a "Lanzhou black melon seeds" or "Lanzhou large plate melon seeds," the name. In the fall, after the seed melon is ripe, the melon will be broken with a fist, eat the meat and take the seeds, wash with water, dry in the sun, can be marketed. Specialized planting of watermelon to take its seeds, the grain is larger to have the value of processing and utilization, after appropriate treatment, can be made into very popular snacks and snacks.

Characteristics of watermelon seeds

The seeds of watermelon are flattened, broadly ovate or rectangular, with a beak and eyespots, consisting of a seed coat and embryo. The seed coat is hard, the epidermis is smooth or cracked, and some have black pockmarks or black spots on the edges, which are divided into black spots at the umbilicus point, black spots at the suture line, or all brown spots. The color of the seeds varies greatly and can be divided into white, yellow, red, brown, black and so on. Different varieties of seeds vary in color and shade.

The size of the seed varies greatly, large seeds weigh more than 100 milligrams per seed, small seeds only about 10 milligrams. According to the size of the seed can be divided into large seeded watermelon and small seeded varieties. Most of the local varieties around China for the large-seeded type, thousand-seeded weight of 77 to 105 grams, such as Xinjiang farmers large-seeded watermelon Karachapan, thousand-seeded weight up to 200 grams, for edible seed melon (hit melon), thousand-seeded weight up to 250 grams; and the introduction of foreign varieties of most of the good for the small-seeded type, thousand-seeded weight of 33.5 to 55.0 grams.