author(s)
Riya Gautam, Harsh Prakash Sharma, Mrinalini Tiwari and UV Kiran

abstract
Pumpkins are widely\r\nknown as a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, genus Cucurbita.\r\nPumpkins are among the major cultivars of vegetables and give good amount\r\nof nutrients like minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates and fiber. As far as human\r\nnutrition is concerned, pumpkin is particularly a strong resource for\r\nanti-oxidants due to presence of functional components of phytonutrients i.e.\r\ncarotenoids, vitamin E, zeaxanthin, ascorbic acids, selenium, phytosterols, and\r\nlinoleic acids. Pumpkin is popularly used as traditional medication for cure of\r\nseveral diseases like anti-tumor, antibacterial, anti-diabetic,\r\nanti-hypertensive, intestinal anti-parasitic, anti-hypercholesterolemia and\r\nanti-inflammation. In the views of above nutritional and medicinal benefits,\r\nPumpkin has vast scope in production of value-added novel food products such as\r\ncookies, chutney, sauces, puree, pickle, jam, jelly, marmalades, weaning mix,\r\npies, ready to serve, squashes, nectars and other beverages. The broad endeavor\r\nof this review is to understand the health benefits of pumpkins in addition to\r\ntheir nutritional value, as well as to study the scope of the production of\r\nvalue-added food products from pumpkin fruits.