## 4 _Cucurbita_ Plants Phytochemical Composition
### Carotenoids and Tocopherols in Cucurbita  
Carotenoids are present in high amount in the fruit of these plants and their hybrids, \(\alpha\)- and \(\beta\)- caroten; \(\zeta\)-carotene; neoxanthin; violaxanthin; lutein; zeaxanthin; taraxanthin; luteoxanthin; auroxanthine; neurosporene; flavoxanthin; 5,6,5',6'-diepoxy-\(\beta\)-carotene; phytofluene; \(\alpha\)-cryptoxanthin; and \(\beta\)-cryptoxanthin [53; 67; 68; 69; 70]. The total carotenoid content varies in range from 234.21 \(\mu\)g/g to 404.98 \(\mu\)g/g in _C. moschata_ fruit [71], and 171.9 \(\mu\)g/g to 461.9 \(\mu\)g/g in _C. pepo_ fruit [61]. The concentration of carotenoids is much higher (10 fold higher) in the peel of _C. moschata_ than flesh [57]. [PERSON] et al. [72] investigated the effect of different baking procedure on \(\beta\)-carotene and lycopene contents of _C. moschata._ It was observed that boiling led to a 4 and 40-fold increase in \(\beta\)-carotene and lycopene contents, respectively. There are also several reports on carotenoid content of several _Cucurbita_ plants, such as landrace pumpkins (_C. moschata_) [71], _C. moschata_ and _C. pepo_[73; 74], and _C. maxima_[75]. A summary of the major carotenoids found in _Cucurbita_ species is given in Table 3.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Fatty acid (\%)** & _Cucurbita moschata_ & _Cucurbita pepo_ & _Cucurbita maxima_ & **References** \\ \hline Myristic acid (C14:0) & ND & 0.1–0.23 & 0.16 \\ Palmitic acid (C16:0) & 12.78–20.74 & 9.5–14.5 & 10.8–15.97 \\ Palmitic oleic (C16:In7) & ND & 0.58 & NQ \\ Heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) & ND & ND & 0.18 \\ Stearic acid (C18:0) & 7.33–7.47 & 03.1–8.67 & 4.68–11.2 \\ Vaccemic acid (C18:In7) & NQ & 01.8 & NQ \\ Oleic acid (C18:In9) & 22.66–31.34 & 21.0–46.9 & 14.83–44.11 \\ Linoleic acid (C18:2) & 35.72–48.52 & 0.17–60.8 & 34.77–56.60 \\ Linolenic (C18:3) & ND & ND–0.68 & 0.24 [53; 58; 59; 60; 61; 62; 64] \\ Arachidic acid (C20:0) & ND & 0.39 & 0.36 \\ Gadoleic acid (C20:1n–9) & ND & 00.1–1.14 & 0.07 \\ Arachidonic acid (C20:4) & NQ & 00.5 & 0.41 \\ Behenic acid (C22:00) & ND & 0.37 & 0.09 \\ Saturated & 20.11 & 18.69–19.35 & 17.47–21.07 \\ Mono-unsaturated & 31.34 & 32.40 & 14.90–44.12 \\ Poly-unsaturated & 35.72 & 36.40 & 34.78–56.84 \\ Total unsaturated & 67.06 & 7.6–80.65 & 71.74–78.90 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Results expressed in dry base of seeds; ND: Not detected; NQ: Not quantified.  
\end{table}
Table 2: Seed fatty acid composition of some common _Cucurbita_ spp. *.  
Edible _Cucurbita_ seeds are also rich in vitamin E (49.49 \(\mu\)g/g to 92.59 \(\mu\)g/g); \(\gamma\)-tocopherol is more abundant than \(\alpha\)-tocopherol [53; 62]. The amounts of \(\alpha\)-, \(\beta\)-, \(\gamma\)- and \(\delta\)-tocopherol from the cold pressed oil extracted from six samples of pumpkin seeds (_C. pepo_) from Serbia were reported by [PERSON] et al. [78], which were in the range of 38.03 to 64.11 mg/100 g oil. _C. maxima_ var. _bejaoui_ seed oil was found as a rich source of tocopherols, where \(\delta\)-tocopherol was the dominant tocopherol with 42% of the total [64]. However, for _C. pepo_ seed oils, \(\gamma\)-tocopherol was stated as the remarkably abundant tocopherol (13-21%) compared to \(\alpha\)- and \(\delta\)-tocopherols [79].