Author: Guest Post

O.K. I just have to say it — pumpkins rock! They are an excellent source of fiber and vitamin A, are a good source of antioxidants, and now, they may contain an compound that helps protect against diabetes.

Researchers in China found that an extract from pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia) promoted the regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells in diabetic rats, boosting levels of insulin-producing beta cells and insulin in the blood.

The rats used in this study, conducted by scientists from the East China Normal University, modeled type-1 diabetes, but the researchers believe the pumpkin extract may also play a role in type-2 diabetes. It is also their hope that the research can be reproduced in humans.

A Malaysian research has discovered that a component of a special pumpkin flour can weaken cancer cells. The component is resistance starch, which leads to the production of propionic acid.

“The acid causes the starch to remain indigestible thus fermenting the bacteria and weakening the cancer cells,” Technology Industry Department lecturer Noor Aziah Abdul Aziz told reporters after receiving the gold medal in conjunction with the Universiti Sains Malaysia’s participation at the Malaysian Technology Expo on March 29. “It changes the oxidation process.”

A Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Industrial Technology lecturer and Associate Professor has developed a flour made from pumpkins. According to Noor Aziah Abdul Aziz, who developed the pumpkin flour for bread with her partner, there is difference in taste from traditional wheat flour, but it does offer more health benefits.

She claims that the pumpkin flour is a good source of dietary fiber, is a natural colorant, and, due to its beta carotene content, has antioxidant properties.

Noor Aziah took three years to develop the flour. She chose flour because bread “is one of the most widely consumed food products by all age groups.”

The pumpkin flour won the gold medal at the 18th International Invention, Innovation, Industrial Design and Technology Exhibition (Itex) 2007 held in Kuala Lumpur in May. It also won Noor Aziah the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Award for Best Woman Inventor at the exhibition.

A Japanese researcher has developed a wild pumpkin variant that is as sweet as pineapple. Tomoaki Oyamada, from Iwate prefectural government’s environmental and health research center, has named his creation “Nanbu-Ichiro” after “Nanbu,” the former name of Iwate Prefecture, and “Ichiro,” the given name of Ichiro Yokota, a former high school headmaster.

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, the new variety contains three times as much sugar density as the more widely consumed varieties and can be eaten raw or made into juice without adding sugar.

Some students at the Morioka Agricultural High School, where Oyamada taught until March, assisted with the project. “Nothing would give us greater pleasure than to see this pumpkin become a specialty of Iwate Prefecture,” a third-year student said.

Alan Hirsch , the neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, noticed that people who lost their sense of smell also had a diminished sexual appetite, so he tested men and women to see what scents might increase blood flow to the genitals.

Although men responded sexually to all of the aromas, the greatest response came from a blend of pumpkin pie and lavender, which increased blood flow to the penis 40% of the time. The scent of pumpkin pie with doughnuts increased blood flow 20%.

I found this interesting little story in an Iranian TV website, titled “Pumpkin, kadu-Halwaayi in Farsi and Urdu, botanically a fruit, is usually orange in color and is rich of vitamin A, B, C, G and minerals.”

According to the story, pumpkin juice can help with “sunstroke, heat-stroke, acidity and liver troubles.” Also, when applied to the eyes, it can help with cataracts. But my favorite part was when it said that pumpkins were “very good in case of impotency and sterility.”

According to WSIL Channel 3, an ABC affiliate out of Illinois, someone pinched more than 100 pumpkins sometime Aug. 2. White County Authorities are seeking these pumpkin pilferers and there is a reward for information leading to the arrest of the squash shoplifters. The pumpkins were in the back of a truck belonging to a farm near Norris City.

But these looters are more than just pumpkin poachers. They’re vandals, as well. For they drove around White and Hamilton Counties throwing the gorgeous orange gourds at mailboxes. Several people reported damage.