Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) seed oil: chemical composition, antioxidant activities and its authentication analysis

Abdul Rohman,Irnawati Irnawati

doi:10.26656/fr.2017.4(3).242

Abstract

Pumpkin seed oil (PSO) has been known as functional food oil due to some bioactive components contained such as phenolics and tocopherols with beneficial effects to human health including antioxidants, prevention of certain cancers, and retardation of hypertension progression and alleviation of diabetes mellitus. To extract PSO from corresponding fruit seed, numerous extraction techniques either conventional like Soxhlet extraction or modern extraction systems such as ultrasound-assisted extraction and supercritical extraction were optimized and developed to get maximum yields of PSO with maximum bioactive components. PSO contained tocopherols and other phenolics compounds, therefore, it has potential application in the treatment of diseases related to oxidative stress. Due to the different price of PSO with other vegetable oils, the adulteration practice involving the substitution or addition of PSO with lower price oils such as palm oil and corn oils is possible, therefore analytical method capable of detecting the adulteration practice is available. The aim of this review was to highlight the physicochemical properties, extraction procedure, antioxidant activities and authentication analysis of PSO.

Highlights

Pumpkin with the scientific name of Cucurbita maxima belongs to Cucurbitaceae family which widely grows in tropical regions and has a relatively high economic importance around the world
Three different extraction procedures namely pressing of roasted pumpkin seed paste, pressing of unroasted ground pumpkin seeds, and pressing of unroasted ground pumpkin seeds while cooling the press two seed varieties were evaluated and the results showed that Pumpkin seed oil (PSO) produced higher total phenol content, higher initial peroxide value and better oxidative stability while cold-pressed oils had higher tocopherol content
The results showed that antiradical activity values were 31.4-70.6% and 19.3-47.7% in the Gleisdorf and Rustikal samples, respectively at the same concentrations of PSO

Summary

Introduction

Pumpkin with the scientific name of Cucurbita maxima belongs to Cucurbitaceae family which widely grows in tropical regions and has a relatively high economic importance around the world. The food industry has exploited pumpkin for the production of juices, purees, jams and alcoholic beverages (Jiao et al, 2014). Pumpkin seed refers to the edible seed of a pumpkin, containing some bioactive compounds frequently used as herbal medicines and functional foods. Pumpkin seeds are commonly used in culinary practices mainly in Southeast Asian countries. In Indonesia, pumpkin is one of the popular vegetables consumed and considered as functional food due to the extraordinary rich sources of bioactive compounds having beneficial health effects (Montesano et al, 2018). Pumpkin seed oil (PSO) has gained great attention in fats and oils industry as edible oil and as a potential nutraceutical (Rezig et al, 2012). The world production of pumpkins was 27 million tonnes, and China led the total production accounting of 29%

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