1. Reductions in natural habitat are implicated in declining honeybee Apis mellifera L. and wild bee populations, thereby threatening crop production. This concern has stimulated interest in identifying landscape-level impacts on bee-mediated pollination services, but previous studies have only inferred connections between landscape, bees and yield through generalized linear regressions. 2. We ...

Rectal seed bezoars are an uncommon cause of fecal impaction, particularly in the United States. Although the literature has reported several cases of phytobezoars composed of various types of seeds, bezoars formed of pumpkin seeds have rarely been reported. We report a case of a man, aged 62 years, with a rectal bezoar composed of pumpkin seeds with complications necessitating extensive treatm...

To choose cucurbitaceous plant pumpkin as the selected plant and the paper initially discussed on the repair effects of DDT-contaminated soil by pumpkin under a variety of measures. Results showed that the content of DDT in soil reduce significantly after the same repair period. The experimental group which have the most obvious repair effect has two kinds of bacteria for control measures. The ...

INTRODUCTION This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of pumpkin seed oil alone or combined with Phytosterol-F on testosterone/prazosin-induced (T-P) prostate growth in rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty adult Wistar rats were divided into five groups, including: one control group, rats treated with vehicle only, one group treated with T-P, and two groups of T-P-treated rats, one r...

Polygalacturonate 4-alpha-galacturonosyltransferase (GalA T) activity was detected in the microsomal fraction isolated from pumpkin (Cucurbia moschata Duchesne, cv. Tokyou-Kabocha) seedlings using UDP-GalA and 2-aminobenzamide (2AB)-labeled oligogalacturonides. A 2AB-labeled undecagalacturonide was elongated by the attachment of galacturonic acid (GalA) residues to give 2AB-labeled oligogalactu...

In this study, ultrasound- and enzyme-assisted extractions of albumin (water-soluble protein group) from defatted pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) seed powder were compared. Both advanced extraction techniques strongly increased the albumin yield in comparison with conventional extraction. The extraction rate was two times faster in the ultrasonic extraction than in the enzymatic extraction. However, t...

Background: Enough information about the actual amount of individual phytochemicals in vegetables and the amount absorbed and utilized is not known. Objective: This study evaluated flavonoid, saponin and phenol content of aqueous extracts of tomato, fluted pumpkin and eggplant as well as the bioavailability of these phytochemicals in rat. Methods: The phytochemical content of the vegetable extr...

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of different levels of pumpkin on the quality characteristics of chicken sausages. The pumpkin was incorporated at three different levels viz. 6, 12 and 18 percent replacing lean meat in the formulation. The products were analyzed for various physicochemical and sensory attributes. pH, emulsion stability, cooking yield, crude protein, ethe...

Carotenoids are well known for their nutritional properties and health promoting effects representing attractive ingredients to develop innovative functional foods, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical preparations. Pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.) flesh has an intense yellow/orange color owing to the high level of carotenoids, mainly α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin. There is...

Aim of this experimental work was to investigate the possibility of producing fruit powders without employing drying aid and to investigate the effect of drying temperatures on the final powder characteristics. Raw fruit materials (banana puree, strawberry puree and blueberry concentrate) were processed using three different drying techniques each operating at a different temperature conditions...