Cucurbits plants: A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential

Bahare Salehi; Esra Capanoglu; Nabil Adrar; Gizem Catalkaya; Shabnum Shaheen; Mehwish Jaffer; Lalit Giri; Renu Suyal; Arun K. Jugran; Daniela Calina; Anca Oana Docea; Senem Kamiloglu; Dorota Kregiel; Hubert Antolak; Ewelina Pawlikowska; Surjit Sen; Krishnendu Acharya; Zeliha Selamoglu; Javad Sharifi-Rad; Miquel Martorell; Célia F. Rodrigues; Farukh Sharopov; Natália Martins; Raffaele Capasso

doi:10.3390/molecules24101854

Cucurbits plants: A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential

Bahare Salehi, Esra Capanoglu, Nabil Adrar, Gizem Catalkaya, Shabnum Shaheen, Mehwish Jaffer, Lalit Giri, Renu Suyal, Arun K. Jugran, Daniela Calina, Anca Oana Docea, Senem Kamiloglu, Dorota Kregiel, Hubert Antolak, Ewelina Pawlikowska, Surjit Sen, Krishnendu Acharya, Zeliha Selamoglu, Javad Sharifi-Rad^*, Miquel MartorellCélia F. Rodrigues, Farukh Sharopov, Natália Martins, Raffaele Capasso

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Food Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

110 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Cucurbita genus has received a renowned interest in the last years. This plant species, native to the Americas, has served worldwide folk medicine for treating gastrointestinal diseases and intestinal parasites, among other clinical conditions. These pharmacological effects have been increasingly correlated with their nutritional and phytochemical composition. Among those chemical constituents, carotenoids, tocopherols, phenols, terpenoids, saponins, sterols, fatty acids, and functional carbohydrates and polysaccharides are those occurring in higher abundance. However, more recently, a huge interest in a class of triterpenoids, cucurbitacins, has been stated, given its renowned biological attributes. In this sense, the present review aims to provide a detailed overview to the folk medicinal uses of Cucurbita plants, and even an in-depth insight on the latest advances with regards to its antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer effects. A special emphasis was also given to its clinical effectiveness in humans, specifically in blood glucose levels control in diabetic patients and pharmacotherapeutic effects in low urinary tract diseases.

Original language	English
Article number	1854
Journal	Molecules
Volume	24
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24101854
Publication status	Published - 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license

Funding

This work was supported by CONICYT PIA/APOYO CCTE AFB170007. N. Martins would like to thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT-Portugal) for the Strategic project ref. UID/BIM/04293/2013 and “NORTE2020—Northern Regional Operational Program” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012) and C.F.R. for the project UID/EQU/00511/2019—Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology, and Energy—LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).

Funders	Funder number
Whitaker International Program	UID/EQU/00511/2019, NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	UID/BIM/04293/2013
Consejo Nacional de Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología	AFB170007

Keywords

Anticancer
Antimicrobial
Antioxidant
Cucurbits
Pumpkin
Squash
Traditional medicine

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/molecules24101854

Cite this

Salehi, B., Capanoglu, E., Adrar, N., Catalkaya, G., Shaheen, S., Jaffer, M., Giri, L., Suyal, R., Jugran, A. K., Calina, D., Docea, A. O., Kamiloglu, S., Kregiel, D., Antolak, H., Pawlikowska, E., Sen, S., Acharya, K., Selamoglu, Z., Sharifi-Rad, J., ... Capasso, R. (2019). Cucurbits plants: A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential. Molecules, 24(10), Article 1854. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24101854

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title = "Cucurbits plants: A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential",

abstract = "Cucurbita genus has received a renowned interest in the last years. This plant species, native to the Americas, has served worldwide folk medicine for treating gastrointestinal diseases and intestinal parasites, among other clinical conditions. These pharmacological effects have been increasingly correlated with their nutritional and phytochemical composition. Among those chemical constituents, carotenoids, tocopherols, phenols, terpenoids, saponins, sterols, fatty acids, and functional carbohydrates and polysaccharides are those occurring in higher abundance. However, more recently, a huge interest in a class of triterpenoids, cucurbitacins, has been stated, given its renowned biological attributes. In this sense, the present review aims to provide a detailed overview to the folk medicinal uses of Cucurbita plants, and even an in-depth insight on the latest advances with regards to its antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer effects. A special emphasis was also given to its clinical effectiveness in humans, specifically in blood glucose levels control in diabetic patients and pharmacotherapeutic effects in low urinary tract diseases.",

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note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license",

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doi = "10.3390/molecules24101854",

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Salehi, B, Capanoglu, E, Adrar, N, Catalkaya, G, Shaheen, S, Jaffer, M, Giri, L, Suyal, R, Jugran, AK, Calina, D, Docea, AO, Kamiloglu, S, Kregiel, D, Antolak, H, Pawlikowska, E, Sen, S, Acharya, K, Selamoglu, Z, Sharifi-Rad, J, Martorell, M, Rodrigues, CF, Sharopov, F, Martins, N & Capasso, R 2019, 'Cucurbits plants: A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential', Molecules, vol. 24, no. 10, 1854. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24101854

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cucurbits plants

T2 - A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential

AU - Salehi, Bahare

AU - Capanoglu, Esra

AU - Adrar, Nabil

AU - Catalkaya, Gizem

AU - Shaheen, Shabnum

AU - Jaffer, Mehwish

AU - Giri, Lalit

AU - Suyal, Renu

AU - Jugran, Arun K.

AU - Calina, Daniela

AU - Docea, Anca Oana

AU - Kamiloglu, Senem

AU - Kregiel, Dorota

AU - Antolak, Hubert

AU - Pawlikowska, Ewelina

AU - Sen, Surjit

AU - Acharya, Krishnendu

AU - Selamoglu, Zeliha

AU - Sharifi-Rad, Javad

AU - Martorell, Miquel

AU - Rodrigues, Célia F.

AU - Sharopov, Farukh

AU - Martins, Natália

AU - Capasso, Raffaele

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Cucurbita genus has received a renowned interest in the last years. This plant species, native to the Americas, has served worldwide folk medicine for treating gastrointestinal diseases and intestinal parasites, among other clinical conditions. These pharmacological effects have been increasingly correlated with their nutritional and phytochemical composition. Among those chemical constituents, carotenoids, tocopherols, phenols, terpenoids, saponins, sterols, fatty acids, and functional carbohydrates and polysaccharides are those occurring in higher abundance. However, more recently, a huge interest in a class of triterpenoids, cucurbitacins, has been stated, given its renowned biological attributes. In this sense, the present review aims to provide a detailed overview to the folk medicinal uses of Cucurbita plants, and even an in-depth insight on the latest advances with regards to its antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer effects. A special emphasis was also given to its clinical effectiveness in humans, specifically in blood glucose levels control in diabetic patients and pharmacotherapeutic effects in low urinary tract diseases.

AB - Cucurbita genus has received a renowned interest in the last years. This plant species, native to the Americas, has served worldwide folk medicine for treating gastrointestinal diseases and intestinal parasites, among other clinical conditions. These pharmacological effects have been increasingly correlated with their nutritional and phytochemical composition. Among those chemical constituents, carotenoids, tocopherols, phenols, terpenoids, saponins, sterols, fatty acids, and functional carbohydrates and polysaccharides are those occurring in higher abundance. However, more recently, a huge interest in a class of triterpenoids, cucurbitacins, has been stated, given its renowned biological attributes. In this sense, the present review aims to provide a detailed overview to the folk medicinal uses of Cucurbita plants, and even an in-depth insight on the latest advances with regards to its antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer effects. A special emphasis was also given to its clinical effectiveness in humans, specifically in blood glucose levels control in diabetic patients and pharmacotherapeutic effects in low urinary tract diseases.

KW - Anticancer

KW - Antimicrobial

KW - Antioxidant

KW - Cucurbits

KW - Pumpkin

KW - Squash

KW - Traditional medicine

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U2 - 10.3390/molecules24101854

DO - 10.3390/molecules24101854

M3 - Review article

C2 - 31091784

AN - SCOPUS:85066093697

SN - 1420-3049

VL - 24

JO - Molecules

JF - Molecules

IS - 10

M1 - 1854

ER -

Cucurbits plants: A key emphasis to its pharmacological potential

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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