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Literature Review: Overview Of Pumpkin

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CHAPTER 2
LITRETURE REVIEW
2.1 Pumpkin 2.1.1 Overview of pumpkin
Pumpkin is one of the economically important vegetable in the world which is native to North and Central America (Whitaker and Bemis, 1975). Pumpkin belongs to genus Cucurbita of family Cucurbitaceae, generally considered to consist of melons, cucurbits and pumpkins. (Toetia, 1992). There are three common species of pumpkin worldwide: Curcurbita pepo, Curcurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata (Whang et al, 1999). Each species consist of several variet¬ies, which differ in shape, color, and chemical composition. Pumpkin is grown throughout tropical and subtropical countries (Dutta et al. 2005). The world production of pumpkin in 2013 is approximately 24 million tons and China, India, Russia, United states, Egypt are the major pumpkin producing countries ( FAOSTAT ,2013).

Almost all parts of the pumpkin are edible including fruit, seeds, leaves and flowers. Pumpkin fruit is the major edible part of this plant which is considered as cheap source of carotene. It is a nutritive vegetable. Besides their nutritional value, pumpkin has proved various health benefits which draw attention such as antidiabetic, antihypertension, antitumor, immunomodulation, antibacteria, antihypercholesterolemia, intestinal antiparasitia, antiinflammation, and …show more content…

The shape can be an elongated cylinder, oval, flattened, globular, heart-shaped, and/or tapering to a curved neck on one or both ends. There are 3 color patterns in pumpkin fruits as light or dark green with or without longitudinal white lines or stripes toward the apex, minutely spotted white and green, and orange, white, cream or flesh white. The rind can be smooth, warty, wrinkled, or/and have shallow to deep longitudinal ridges. The flesh of the pumpkin is sweet and can be variable in color and thickness. Seeds are flattened, ovate – elliptical in shape and dark brown to black or creamy white in

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