Caili Fu, Huan Shi, Quanhong Li
College of Food Science and Nutrition Engineering, China Agriculture University, Beijing 100083, China.
Plant Foods Hum Nutr. 2006 Jun;61(2):73-80. doi: 10.1007/s11130-006-0016-6.
Dietary plants and herbal preparations have been traditionally used as medicine in developing countries and obtained a resurgence of use in the United States and Europe. Research carried out in last few decades has validated several such claims of use of traditional medicine plants. Popularity of pumpkin in various systems of traditional medicine for several ailments (antidiabetic, antihypertensive, antitumor, immunomodulation, antibacterial, antihypercholesterolemia, intestinal antiparasitia, antiinflammation, antalgic) focused the investigators' attention on this plant. Considerable evidence from several epidemiological studies concerning bioactivities leads have stimulated a number of animal model, cell culture studies and clinical trials designed to test this pharmacological actions. In addition, it was found that technologies such as germination and fermentation could reduce antinutritional materials and affect the pharmacological activities of pumpkin. This review will focus on the main medicinal properties and technologies of pumpkin, and point out areas for future research to further elucidate mechanisms whereby this compound may reduce disease risk.
在发展中国家，食用植物和草药制剂传统上就被用作药物，并且在美国和欧洲又重新开始流行起来。过去几十年所开展的研究证实了使用传统药用植物的若干此类说法。南瓜在各种传统医学体系中因多种疾病（抗糖尿病、抗高血压、抗肿瘤、免疫调节、抗菌、抗高胆固醇血症、肠道抗寄生虫、抗炎、镇痛）而受到欢迎，这使得研究人员将注意力集中在了这种植物上。来自多项关于生物活性线索的流行病学研究的大量证据，激发了许多旨在测试这种药理作用的动物模型、细胞培养研究及临床试验。此外，人们发现发芽和发酵等技术可以减少抗营养物质，并影响南瓜的药理活性。本综述将聚焦于南瓜的主要药用特性和技术，并指出未来研究的方向，以进一步阐明该化合物降低疾病风险的机制。
