An annual herbaceous plant. Root taproot, branched. Stems are weak, creeping, weakly rooting at the nodes, rough, furrowed, with whiskers clinging to other plants or objects. The leaves are large, reniform-round-triangular, long-petiolate. The flowers are large, solitary, same-sex on one plant – male and female, yellow. The fruit is yago-shaped, multi-seeded. Seeds are large and flat. Blooms from June to autumn. The fruits ripen from August.
Pumpkin is a melon plant, widespread in culture in the south of the European part of Russia, Ukraine.
Medicinal raw materials are seeds stored for no more than 2 years, as well as pulp.
The seeds contain essential oil, phytosterol (cucurbital), protein, phytin, sugar, salicylic acid, and resin with oxycerotinic acid. Pumpkin pulp contains salts of potassium, calcium, iron, there are vitamins B], B2, B6, PP, a lot of carotene (provitamin A), vitamin C, sugar.
Rich in pumpkin and pectin. They have a positive effect on the processes of digestion, for example, they adsorb and remove from the intestine toxic substances that enter with food and are formed during the life of the intestinal microflora. To a certain extent, pectins contribute to the removal of cholesterol, they are not without bactericidal properties. That is why it is useful to include pumpkin in the diet of those suffering from atherosclerosis and chronic diseases of the colon.
Pumpkin is used in boiled and steamed form. Boiled is recommended in clinical nutrition for diseases of the digestive system. The fact is that it has little fiber and organic acids, so it does not cause excessive intestinal motility, does not irritate the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines.
Especially a lot of potassium salts in pumpkin, more than in cauliflower and white cabbage. Therefore, pumpkin dishes are very useful for cardiovascular diseases and all kinds of kidney diseases. To improve urination and fight swelling, doctors advise drinking fresh pumpkin juice one at a time – one and a half glasses every day.
Pumpkin is low in calories, so pumpkin dishes are recommended for those who are obese and prone to overweight.
In medical practice, pumpkin seeds and products prepared from them are used against all kinds of tapeworms (pork, bovine and pygmy tapeworms, wide tapeworm, etc.), they are inferior in activity to products from male fern, but they do not have a harmful effect on the body.
Pumpkin pulp improves bowel function in case of constipation, increases diuresis and is a good diuretic.
In diseases of the kidneys, sometimes they drink juice from raw pulp (0.5 cups a day).
In folk medicine, peeled pumpkin seeds (up to 3 glasses every day) have long been used as an anthelmintic. Fresh pulp is applied to inflamed areas for burns, rashes, eczema. The result is always good. Pumpkin stalk is an effective diuretic for edema of cardiac and renal origin.
In homeopathy, the essence of fresh pumpkin seeds is used.
Application
300 g of seeds (for adults), peeled from a hard peel, but retaining a soft greenish shell, are ground in small portions in a mortar, later, in the last portion, the mortar is washed with 50-60 ml of water and this water is poured into a plate with ground seeds, you can still add (for taste) 50-100 g of honey or jam and mix thoroughly. The resulting mixture is taken on an empty stomach, in small portions, for 1 hour. After 3 hours, a laxative is given in the aftermath of the intake, then after another 1/2 hour, regardless of the action of the intestines, an enema is given.
Children are given at the rate of 15-18 ml per year of life; for example, a child of 3 years old is given 50 ml per reception; Helmet for a child – 180-200 ml.
On the days of treatment, it will be necessary to follow the following diet: on the 1st day (preparation for treatment), the patient should eat pureed or liquid food (soups, liquid cereals, vegetable purees, yogurt, etc.)
Worms sometimes do not come out immediately, but in the next 1-2 days. Therefore, on the 2nd and 3rd day, it is recommended to put a cleansing enema once every day.
If there are unpeeled pumpkin seeds (in summer, autumn or winter), not dried, unpeeled, then you can prepare an antihelminthic medicine in this way: take 500 g of seeds, grind in a meat grinder along with the shell, pour 5 glasses of water and evaporate for 2 hours on a light fire without boiling. The broth, condensed in this way to almost half, strain through cheesecloth and remove an unnecessary layer of oil from its plane with a spoon.
For babies up to one year old, take 30 g of seeds. Pumpkin powder (finished product) completely replaces seeds; adults – 60-80 g, children – 30-40 g. The powder must be mixed with a small amount of water until the density of sour cream and taken for 15-20 minutes.
The diet is the same as in the treatment with ordinary pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin powder or just seeds are recommended for use in cases where treatment with products from male fern is contraindicated (for diseases of the heart, kidneys and liver, peptic ulcer of the stomach or duodenum, acute gastrointestinal and febrile diseases and pregnancy (see Male fern) .
Gymnospermous pumpkin seeds are prepared for treatment in the same way as ordinary pumpkin seeds, only in a moderate dose: 150-200 g each. Diet – see above. With insomnia and anxious sleep, a glass of pumpkin broth with honey is taken as a sedative.