Our action “Seeds for Food” <www.seedsforfood.org> is running as a train, thanks to heaps of envelopes and postpacks full of pumpkin seeds sent every day by people who have eaten these pumpkins, collected the seeds of these fruits, washed and dried them. All these seeds are fully disinfected and prepared for shipment to different development projects all over the world.
It has been shown that people living continuously in food insecurity really love to grow pumpkins in their kitchen garden. Some schools in developing countries have introduced them in their school garden and pupils are taking full care of these impressive plants. The pumpkins produced locally play a very important role in the daily diet, thus contributing to public health because of the content of carotenoids, vitamins and antioxidants.
As the small-scale farmers at the development projects cannot afford to purchase expensive commercial pumpkin seeds, our free seeds are most welcome. Growing pumpkins is a valuable factor for food security : healthy fresh fruits can be eaten over a longer period and the big pumpkin leaves and stems can be used as fodder for the livestock or for composting.
Today, I felt happy to discover an interesting publication at the “Science Daily”-website, indicating that orange pumpkins seem to be more interesting than the yellow or white ones.
- Wouldn’t it be nice if hungry people could grow these magnificent pumpkins themselves ? If only we could offer them all the pumpkin seeds, thrown in the garbage bins during the haloween period. Why not launching an international “PUMPKIN DAY” ? Maybe some day one of those famous singers can transform this idea into an action !
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104111733.htm
Powerful Pumpkins, Super Squash
ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2009) — Carotenoids, the family of yellow to red pigments responsible for the striking orange hues of pumpkins and the familiar red color of vine-ripe tomatoes, play an important role in human health by acting as sources of provitamin A or as protective antioxidants. Pumpkins and squash, available in a wide range of white, yellow, and orange colors, are excellent sources of dietary carotenoids, particularly lutein, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene. The colors of these nutritional vegetables are determined by their genetic makeup — the concentration and type of carotenoids they contain — which are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
The good news: this wide range of carotenoids in pumpkins and squash provides fertile ground for genetic improvement. When breeders have reliable information about carotenoid types and concentrations, they can work to improve the vegetables’ nutritional value and create new varieties of antioxidant-packed offerings for consumers.
But identifying and quantifying carotenoids hasn’t been simple; scientists traditionally use a method called “high-performance liquid chromatography,” or HPLC. HPLC is highly sensitive and reproducible, but can be expensive and time-consuming. To determine if carotenoid content of pumpkin and squash could be accurately measured using a less-expensive and simpler method, Rachel A. Itle and Eileen A. Kabelka from the University of Florida’s Horticultural Sciences Department designed a research study using colorimetric analysis to correlate color space values with carotenoid content in pumpkins and squash. The study appeared in a recent issue of HortScience.
Pumpkins and squash with white, yellow, and orange flesh color were grown at multiple locations for the study. The flesh of each specimen was evaluated using both HPLC and colorimetric analysis. According to the research, “strong correlations between colorimetric values and carotenoid content were identified.”
Interestingly, the researchers found a “nine-fold increase in total carotenoids provided within orange-red and yellow-orange colored cultigens versus yellow colored cultigens.“
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