# Pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo)

*Pumpkin, *Pepo* of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia; *Cucurbita pepo* L., for pharmacy usually the Styrian variety, *C. pepo* convar. *citrullina* var. *styriaca*; in pharmacy *Cucurbitae semen**

**Known today as.** The whole, dry, ripe seed of the pumpkin, *Cucurbita pepo*, of the family Cucurbitaceae, an annual with a trailing, rough-haired stem, branching tendrils, large five-lobed leaves, and large yellow flowers. King’s Dispensatory describes the seeds as about 2 cm long, broadly ovate, flat, white or whitish, “inodorous; taste bland and oily.” The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report notes that the Styrian variety is preferred in pharmacy for its thin seed coat and soft taste, and that the seed is about half fatty oil.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** Not for those under eighteen or pregnant women, whose urinary symptoms need medical supervision, nor in breast-feeding. Men using it should see a doctor if their complaints worsen, or if fever, spasms, blood in the urine, painful urination, or retention of urine occur. No adverse effects were reported from the member states, but allergic reactions to the Cucurbitaceae family should be considered.

## What was it used for?

A remedy for worms and for the bladder. King’s records that the seeds had long been popular with lay people as a remedy for worms, the oil taken fasting and followed by castor oil to remove tapeworm, and gives them as mucilaginous and diuretic, the expressed oil said to be a most certain and efficient diuretic. The assessment report records their traditional use in Europe as a diuretic and a remedy for tapeworm since medieval times, and more recently for the difficulties of an enlarged prostate and an irritable bladder.

## What does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the seed as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the relief of lower urinary tract symptoms of benign enlargement of the prostate or of an overactive bladder, after serious conditions have been excluded by a doctor (monograph of 2012). Its assessment report names the 7- and 5-sterols as the putative active constituents. It found only one controlled clinical study, by Bach (2000), in which after twelve months only the prostate symptom score differed from placebo, while urine flow, quality of life, prostate volume, and residual urine did not: “only a small effect” on symptoms, without changing the objective measures.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **5-sterols**: with the 7-sterols, the putative active constituents
- **fatty oil**: about half the seed

**Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry.

**Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2012): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for lower urinary tract symptoms of benign prostatic enlargement or overactive bladder.

## What lore surrounds it?

The seeds are a quarter husk and three quarters kernel, King’s reports, and Dr L. Wolff held their worm-expelling principle to be a greenish-brown, acrid, bitter resin dissolved out by ether.

## What did the older authorities say?

**King’s American Dispensatory (1898).** Mucilaginous, worm-killing, and diuretic, of service in strangury and urinary affections, gastritis, and fevers; the infusion “may be drank freely.” The West India seeds, it adds, were more active against worms than the North American.

## Sources

- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). *King’s American Dispensatory*, vol. 2, “Pepo.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Cucurbitae semen (Pumpkin seed)*. EMA/HMPC/136024/2010, 20 November 2012.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Cucurbitae semen*. EMA/HMPC/136022/2010, 20 November 2012.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Cucurbitae semen (Pumpkin seed)*. EMA/HMPC/136024/2010, 20 November 2012.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Cucurbitae semen*. EMA/HMPC/136022/2010, 20 November 2012.

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*Pumpkin seed.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-17. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pumpkin-seed

Historical description, not medical advice.