Cucurbita moschata

Scientific name: Cucurbita moschata Duchesne

Synonym: Cucurbita pepo var. moschata Duch. ex Lam.

Botanical family: CUCURBITACEAE

Vernacular names

(In territories with significant traditional TRAMIL use)

Dominican Republic:

auyama

Haiti:

jiroumou
jiwomon

Other vernacular names

Dominican Republic:

Auyama

Haiti:

Jiroumou
Jiwoumou
Joumou

Geographical distribution

Native to tropical America, widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions.

Botanical description

Herbaceous annual, creeping or ascending, with slightly angular stems. Simple or ramified tendrils. Pubescent, serrate leaves with 5 to 7 acute or obtuse lobes. Unisexual flowers, axillary,
solitary; orange-yellow corolla of up to 15 cm. Globose fruit, sometimes cylindrical, pyriform or conical, green, yellow or orange, often grooved.

Voucher(s)

Jiménez,127,JBSD

burns

leaf, juice, applied locally²

jaundice

flower, decoction or infusion, orally²

asthenia, weakness

leaf, broth, orally¹

jaundice

leaf, aqueous maceration, orally¹

The fruit and flower of Cucurbita moschata are foods of relatively widespread human consumption.

For asthenia or weakness:
prepare a broth with 30 grams of stems and leaves in 4 cups (1 litre) of water. Drink 3 cups a day.

For jaundice:
prepare a decoction or infusion with 5-7 grams of flowers in 1 cup (250 millilitres) of water. For decoctions, boil for 5 minutes in a covered vessel. For the infusion, add the boiling water to the 5 grams of flowers and cover. Leave to stand for 5 minutes, cool,strain (filter) and drink 1 cup 3 times a day¹⁷.

For burns:
wash the injury with boiled water and soap, apply the leaf juice to the affected area in sufficient quantities. Cover with a dressing or clean cloth and change twice a day.

Preparations must never be stored for more than 24 hours, even if refrigerated.

According to the information available:

The use for asthenia, weakness, jaundice and superficial burns is classified as REC based on the significant traditional use documented in the TRAMIL surveys and the toxicity studies.

Due to the health risk of liver conditions (jaundice), an initial medical assessment is recommended. The use of this resource must be considered complementary to medical treatment, unless contraindicated. If deterioration is observed in the patient or the jaundice persists for more than 3 days, seek medical attention.

Use should be limited to superficial burns (epidermal damage) that are minor (less than 10% of the body surface) and located outside high-risk areas such as the face, hands, feet and genitals.

All topical application must follow strict hygiene measures that prevent contamination or additional infection.

Not for use during pregnancy, breastfeeding or in children under 5 years.

TRAMIL Work¹³
The LD50 of the leaf juice (100%), the fruit juice (100%) and the aqueous seed maceration orally in mice was higher than 25 g/kg; via the intraperitoneal route the following LD50 values were obtained:

- leaf aqueous extract:	greater than 25 g/kg
- leaf juice:	8.9 ± 0.6 g/kg
- seed macerated:	8.8 ± 1.8 g/kg
- fruit juice:	13.5 ± 0.8 g/kg

The aqueous extract of the whole plant (1 g plant/ml, up to 18.75 g/kg) orally in mice for 30 days did not cause death.

TRAMIL Work¹⁴
Aqueous and hydroalcoholic (80%) leaf extracts in human lymphocyte culture and MOLT-4 model showed significantly lower levels of cellular toxicity than the control.

TRAMIL Work⁹
The juice and the aqueous leaf extract (50%) applied with the Draize method modified by Finkelstein for skin toxicity, in groups of 9 New Zealand albino rabbits of the UniValle strain did not cause obvious manifestations of toxicity or local irritability. Cucurbitin is attributed with low toxicity in humans¹⁵ and dogs^15-16.

There is no information available documenting the safety of medicinal use in children, during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

The whole plant contains citric, fumaric, succinic, malic, p- hydroxybenzoic acid, vitamin C³, xylitol (96.5 mg/100 g of dry plant)⁴and ferulic acid⁵.

The leaves contain hydroxylated fatty acids: 13-hydroxy-9Z,11E,15E-octadecatrienoic acid⁶.

Proximate analysis of 100 g of leaves⁷: calories: 30; water: 89.7%; protein: 3.6%; fat: 0.6%; carbohydrates: 4.5%; ash: 1.6%; calcium: 138 mg; phosphorus: 99 mg; iron: 3.7 mg; carotene: 1650 μg; thiamine: 0.14 mg.

Nutritional composition: 100 grams of edible parts contains⁸: calories: 37; water: 88.72%; protein: 1.45 g;
fats: 0.23%; carbohydrates: 8.80%; ash: 0.8 g; fibre: 1.5%; calcium: 31 mg; phosphorus: 32.0 mg; potassium: 350 mg; magnesium: 21 mg; iron: 0.58 mg; thiamine: 0.097 mg; riboflavin: 0.027 mg; niacin: 0.8 mg; ascorbic acid: 12.3 mg.

TRAMIL Work⁹
The leaf juice and the aqueous leaf extract (50%), modified Bianchi-David method (first and second degree burn regulated by electrocauterisation on the skin on the backs of rabbits), showed no difference in healing or local anti-inflammatory activity.

TRAMIL Work¹⁰
The aqueous leaf extract (1.7% decoction), was applied topically on both sides of the right ear (333.33, 500. 666.67 mg/ear, in a volume of 10 μl) in the model of inflammation induced by application of tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA) (0.125 mg/ml) for 4 hours, in Hsd:ICR mouse (CD-1), groups of 6 males and 6 females. The negative control received acetone (10 μl/ear) and the positive control group was treated with indomethacin (25 mg/ml). No statistically significant inhibition of the inflammation was observed in any of the groups treated.

An oil solution from the plant is cited in the Soviet Pharmacopoeia for compresses and emulsions, for the
treatment of chronic skin conditions and burns¹¹.

The carotenes contained in fruit and in greater quantity in the flowers⁷, act as inducers in DNA repair mechanisms¹².

Pharmacopoeia

Ed.3

References

1 WENIGER B, ROUZIER M, 1986
Enquête TRAMIL. Service Oecuménique d’Entraide SOE, Port au Prince, Haïti.

2 WENIGER B, 1987-88
Encuesta TRAMIL. enda-caribe, Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.

3 HEGNAUER R, 1973
Chemotaxonomy der Pflanzen. Basel, Schweiz: Birkhauser Verlag. 6:882.

4 WASHUTTL J, REIDERER P, BANCHER E, 1973
A qualitative and quantitative study of sugar-alcohols in several foods. J Food Sci 38(7):1262-1263.

5 DUKE JA, 2000
Chemicals and their Biological Activities in: Cucurbita moschata. Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. USDA-ARS-NGRL, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, USA, August 10, 2000.www.arsgrin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/farmacy2.pl

6 BANG MH, HAN JT, KIM HY, PARK YD, PARK CH, LEE KR, BAEK NI, 2002
13-Hydroxy-9Z,11E,15E-octadecatrienoic acid from the leaves of Cucurbita moschata. Arch Pharm Res
25(4):438-440.

7 DUKE JA, ATCHLEY AA, 1986
Handbook of proximate analysis tables of higher plants. Boca Raton, USA: CRC Press. p55.

8 USDA.
www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl?squash

9 HERRERA J, 1992
Determinación de parámetros farmacológicos usados en medicina tradicional popular en la cuenca del Caribe. Informe TRAMIL. Laboratorio de Fitofarmacología, Dep. de Farmacología, Facultad de Salud, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia.

10 PAZOS L, COTO T, CAIZA F, 2008
Antiinflamatorio tópico, en ratones, de la hoja de Curcubita moschata. Informe TRAMIL, Laboratorio de
Ensayos Biológicos, LEBi, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica.

11 VILENCHIK M, 1989
Fundamentos biológicos del envejecimiento y la longevidad. Moscú, URSS: Ed. MIR.

12 HERRERA J, 1990
Determinación de parámetros farmacológicos de vegetales utilizados en medicina tradicional en la cuenca del Caribe. Informe TRAMIL. Laboratorio de Fitofarmacología, Dep. de Farmacología, Facultad de Salud,
Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia.

13 WENIGER B, 1992
Cytotoxicité, effets immunodulateurs et morphologique des extraits éthanolique 80% et aqueux de feuille de
Cucurbita. Rapport TRAMIL. Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, France.

14 HURTADO M, CARBALLO A, 1990
Las plantas medicinales TRAMIL en la farmacopea Soviética. Centro de Investigaciones de Fitoterapia y
Medicina Tradicional, Topes de Collantes, Cuba.

15 PARIS R, MOYSE H, 1981
Précis de matière médicale. Paris, France: Ed. Maloine.

16 CHEN ZK, PU TC, LI DY, JIANG HA, 1980
Therapeutic effect of cucurbitine on dog taeniasis. Zhongguo Yao Li Xue Bao 1(2):124-126.

17 ALBORNOZ A, 1993
Medicina tradicional herbaria. Guía de Fitoterapia. Caracas, Venezuela: Editorial Instituto Farmacoterápico
Latino S.A. p226.

Disclaimer

The information provided is for educational purposes only for the benefit of the general public and health professionals. It is not intended to take the place of either the written law or regulations. Since some parts of plants could be toxic, might induce side effects, or might have interactions with certain drugs, anyone intending to use them or their products must first consult with a physician or another qualified health care professional. TRAMIL has no responsibility whatsoever towards the user for any decision, action or omission made in relation to the information contained in this Pharmacopoeia.

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Cucurbita moschata

Vernacular names

Dominican Republic:

Haiti:

Dominican Republic:

Haiti:

Geographical distribution

Botanical description

Voucher(s)

Pharmacopoeia

References

Disclaimer