Pumpkin has good health care effects

Pumpkin is also known as pumpkin and pumpkin. It is sweet and warm in nature and has the functions of strengthening the spleen, digesting food, and cleansing the stomach. Li Shizhen, a medical scientist of the Ming Dynasty, said in his "Compendium of Materia Medica": Pumpkin is yellow in color and sweet in taste. It is a powerful supplement to vitality and should not be ignored. In the past, people in Fujian said that vegetarian ham nourishes the body and blood. Traditional Chinese medicine literature states that pumpkin has the effects of tonifying the spleen, warming the stomach, reducing inflammation, relieving pain, replenishing qi, and killing insects. Pumpkin contains protein, fat, sugar and vitamins A, B, and C. It also contains calcium, fiber, carotene, and various minerals. In recent years, some people at home and abroad have praised pumpkin as a "super-grade health product", which is mainly used to prevent and treat diabetes. It is said to be able to effectively promote the secretion of insulin. Here are some commonly used therapeutic recipes:

Pumpkin porridge: 500g pumpkin, 200g rice. Cut the pumpkin into small pieces and cook it with rice to make porridge. This porridge can prevent and treat summer heat, body fatigue, polydipsia, and difficulty in urination.

Pumpkin rice: 500g rice, 400g pumpkin, appropriate amount of lard. Peel the pumpkin and cut it into small pieces, fry it briefly in lard, add it to the washed rice, add water, and cook it into rice. This rice is soft and delicious, and has therapeutic and health-care effects on patients with bronchitis, diabetes, liver cancer, etc.

Pumpkin cake: 500g wheat flour, 400g pumpkin, 300g minced pork, 40g mustard, appropriate amounts of soy sauce and MSG. Cut the pumpkin into thin slices and add a small amount of water to cook until crispy. Then mix with wheat flour and add rice wine, soy sauce, and MSG. Mix well to make a dough, wrap the meat filling, and flatten into a cake. Put a little vegetable oil in a pan and fry over low heat into cakes. Delicious and increases appetite.

Although pumpkin is good, people suffering from athlete's foot, jaundice, diarrhea, fullness, and qi stagnation should not eat it.

===

The nutritional and health-care effects of pumpkin

1 The origin and distribution of pumpkin

Pumpkin (Cucurbitamoschata Duch), scientific name Cucurbitaspp , is an annual trailing herbaceous plant of the genus Cucurbitaceae, Cucurbitaceae, with medium leaves, white spots, and a five-rhombus-shaped fruit stalk. As early as 1936, Mr. Wu Gengmin, a Chinese horticulturist and professor of Zhejiang University, based on the classification opinions of French Luodian, divided the three main cultivated varieties of pumpkin into three categories based on their origin and botanical characteristics: Chinese pumpkin (C .moschata.Duch, commonly known as Japanese pumpkin, pumpkin, etc.), Indian pumpkin (C.maxima.Duch, commonly known as winter squash, stir melon, etc.) and American pumpkin (C.pepo.L, commonly known as zucchini). HAPPYS. PARIS believes that "pumpkin may be the oldest and most diverse Cucurbitaceae plant, and it is the most typical genus in Cucurbitaceae. Pumpkin fruits include spherical, oblate spherical, and obovate fruits, some with longitudinal grooves and varying sizes. one".

According to years of research by Whitek, a cucurbit expert from the United States Department of Agriculture, and the global report of Esquinas-Alcazar of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it is believed that pumpkin plants originated from the American continent. Pumpkins are currently grown all over the world, with the largest planting area in Asia, followed by Europe and South America. According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the pumpkin planting area in the world in 2002 was 1.37 million hectares, with a total output of about 16.91 million tons. Among the output values ??of different vegetable crops in the world, pumpkins ranked 9th, with an annual sales value of 40 billion dollars. In 2002, my country's pumpkin cultivation area was approximately 250,000 hm2, accounting for 19% of the world's total area; the total output reached 4.1 million tons, accounting for 24.3% of the world's total output that year. China and India are the two main pumpkin producing countries in the world, with China ranking second in the world in terms of cultivation area and first in total output. It was introduced in my country in the early Ming Dynasty and has been planted from south to north, especially in North China, Northeast China, Northwest China, Central China, Southwest China, Taiwan and other regions. Pumpkin was first recorded in the dish section of "Compendium of Materia Medica". Li Shizhen said: "It left the south and transferred to Fujian and Zhejiang. It is also found in various places in Yanjing today."

2 Nutritional components of pumpkin

Research in recent years has shown that the nutritional components of pumpkin are comprehensive and unique.

According to Zhang Fang and others from the School of Food Science of Southwest Agricultural University, every 100g of fresh pumpkin is rich in carbohydrates, protein, fat, and reducing sugar. It is also rich in carotene, VB, VC, VE, calcium, potassium, zinc, and chromium. , selenium and other minerals, as well as arginine, aspartic acid, adenobium, pectin, mannitol, lutein, lutein, citrulline, aspartine, trigonelline, cyclopropyl amino acid CTY, etc. In particular, the content of the rare amino acid citrulline reaches 20.9mg/100g, and the pectin content accounts for 7% to 17% of the dry matter of pumpkin. Wang Ping et al. also measured the nutritional content of pumpkin fruits. The dry matter content ranged from 11.42% to 15.23%. Compared with other melon vegetables, the dry matter content was higher; the soluble sugar content reached 5.57% to 7.52%. , close to watermelon; starch content is 1.34% to 2.41%; pectin content is 1.14% to 2.03% (9.98% to 15.49% of dry weight), which is higher than pectin-rich carrots. The β-carotene content of vitamins contained in pumpkin fruits is relatively high, reaching 8.09~34.22mg/kgFW, which is higher than carrots and spinach, which are rich in carotene. The amino acid analysis of pumpkin product pumpkin powder by He Xiaoqiong and others showed that pumpkin contains 17 kinds of amino acids needed by the human body, including lysine, leucine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, and threonine. High content of essential amino acids. Pumpkin is a low-fat, high dietary fiber food, rich in soluble dietary fiber pectin, and is an important raw material for extracting pectin. The carotene content in pumpkin is 8 to 20 times that of watermelon. It is a high-quality source of vitamin A. The content of vitamin A is equivalent to that of tomatoes, and the content of vitamin C is higher than that of cucumbers. Pumpkin is also rich in simple sugars such as sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Sang-Moon-Jang et al. compared the soluble sugar content of pumpkin peel and pulp and found that the soluble sugar content of the peel was 23.30% and the pulp was 39.30%. The measured protein content was 13.33-28.42%, the crude fat content was 13.61-25.47%, and the crude fiber content was 13.33-28.42%. The content is 19.57~25.97%.

Pumpkin seeds are also very nutritious and have great development value. Studies by Wang Xiao and others have shown that pumpkin seeds contain more than ten kinds of fatty acids, namely oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid, stearic acid, linolenic acid, myristic acid, arachidic acid, 11,14-octadecane Dienoic acid, 9,11-octadecadienoic acid, behenic acid, caproic acid, octenoic acid, etc.; the main fatty acids are linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid. Pumpkin seeds also contain lipids such as phytosterols, sterol esters, phosphatidylcholine, and cerebrosides. Pumpkin seeds contain sixteen kinds of amino acids including isoleucine, leucine, lysine, tryptophan, arginine, histidine and special pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin seeds contain vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin PP, pantothenic acid, etc.; they are rich in mineral elements such as zinc, selenium, manganese, copper, iron, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Pumpkin seeds also contain ingredients such as stachyose, raffinose, verbascose, trypsin inhibitors, phytic acid, and tannins.

Research by Ye Shengying and others shows that the main active ingredient of pumpkin is pumpkin polysaccharide (PP). Pumpkin polysaccharide (PP) is a brown powder, soluble in water, especially in hot water, and insoluble in high-concentration organic solvents such as ethanol, acetone, and ethyl acetate. It is composed of D-glucose, D-galactose, and L-arabinose. , xylose and D-glucuronic acid.

3 The nutritional and health-care effects of pumpkin

The nutritional value of pumpkin is very high. There are records of the dietary and health-care effects of pumpkin in ancient my country. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that pumpkin is warm in nature and sweet in taste, and has the effects of replenishing qi, strengthening the liver, supporting the kidneys, lowering blood pressure, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, detoxifying and killing insects. Pumpkin is a treasure all over its body, and its roots, stems, pedicles, leaves, seeds, and fruits all have certain curative or auxiliary curative effects on certain diseases. The history book of traditional Chinese medicine, "Southern Yunnan Materia Medica" records: "Pumpkin is warm in nature, sweet in taste and non-toxic. It enters the spleen and stomach meridians and can moisten the lungs and replenish qi, resolve phlegm and pus, expel parasites and detoxify, and treat coughs, asthma, lung abscesses, Constipation and other symptoms”, and it is believed that pumpkin can “transverse the meridians and facilitate urination”.

"Yi Lin Tu Yao" records that pumpkin can "benefit the heart and restrain the lungs", and has the effects of being warm in nature and sweet in taste, moistening the lungs, entering the spleen and stomach, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, detoxifying and repelling parasites, and is suitable for burns, scalds, etc. In "Compendium of Materia Medica", Li Shizhen put pumpkin together with Ganoderma lucidum, saying that it has the effect of "tonifying middle and liver qi, replenishing heart qi, replenishing lung qi and replenishing essence qi". It is suitable for those who suffer from chronic illness with qi deficiency, weak spleen and stomach, shortness of breath, fatigue, little food, abdominal distension, edema and little urination. In recent years, people have discovered that pumpkin also contains a large number of physiologically active substances and has various medicinal values ??for the human body. Therefore, the effective pharmaceutical ingredients in pumpkin can be extracted to make health foods and medicines, and long-term consumption has the function of health care, prevention and treatment of diseases.

3.1 Anti-cancer and anti-tumor effects

3.2 Regulating blood lipids

3.3 Adjuvant therapeutic effect on diabetes

3.4 Detoxification function

p>

3.5 Anti-complement activity

4 Application prospects

In recent years, as people’s understanding of the health-care effects of pumpkin has deepened, comprehensive research on pumpkin has gradually begun at home and abroad. Developed and utilized, pumpkins began to be used as raw materials for nutraceuticals and functional foods or for direct consumption as nutraceuticals and functional foods. The extraction, isolation, identification and zoological experimental research of pumpkin's special anti-hyperglycemic ingredients have become more and more in-depth. Health food provides a new theoretical basis for the in-depth development of functional nutritional food. It is expected that pumpkin will become a new hot spot in the development of functional nutritional food.