Pumpkin Bio-Wastes as Source of Functional Ingredients

Abstract

A large amount of wastes and by-products are generated during the vegetables and fruits production and food industry. These wastes create increasing disposal and severe environmental problems or discarded with a loss of valuable biomass and nutrients. However, these wastes contain bioactive compounds of great potential and value-added compounds. These wastes or by-products can be incorporated as food additives and/or used as nutraceuticals. Therefore, the valorization of agro wastes or by-products from the food industry significantly contributing to a sustainable food chain from an environmental and economic point of view. Pumpkin is a gourd-like fruit of the genus Cucurbita (family Cucurbitaceae), indigenous to the tropical and sub-tropical countries. Worldwide, three common pumpkin species are grown, namely Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, which economically represent the most important species. Globally, China, India, Ukraine, Egypt, and the United States are the major pumpkin-producing countries. Pumpkins are a rich source of important natural bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, tocopherols, phytosterols, phenolics, antidiabetic polysaccharides, minerals, vitamins, antifungal proteins, essential and nonessential amino acids, pectin, and fibers. Besides, the pumpkin seed oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-9). The bioactive compounds found in pumpkin exhibit a wide range of biological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, cardio protective, antiaging, antimicrobial anticancer, and prebiotic activities. The wastes from pumpkin fruits and biomass from seed oil production retained great amounts of these bioactive compounds, representing a potential for their use as a nutraceutical or dietary supplement. The present chapter describes the economic values, chemical composition, bioactive compounds, health benefits, and pumpkin fruits’ biological activity. In addition, the current status of the use, recovery, food, and non-food applications of pumpkin processing by-products, including peels, pulp, and seeds. The technologies employed to obtain and isolate the highly value-added components from these by-products will also be discussed.