It has been produced in Slovenia, Austria, and Hungary and used as cooking oil in many parts in Africa and the Middle East. The oil content is around 50% and it can be obtained from pumpkin seeds with or without husks using solvent extraction, supercritical CO 2 or cold pressed methods.
How is PSO extracted from pumpkin seeds?
PSO is generally extracted by expelling the oil from the seeds mechanically. Both hulled and hull-less pumpkin seeds could be used for oil production. The oil from the hull-less seeds is much easier to extract and more commonly processed.
What is pumpkin seed oil?
It is dichromatic, viscous oil that has been documented for its strong antioxidant activity (Stevenson et al. 2007). Moreover, pumpkin seed oil (PSO) has the most remarkable health benefits (Nishimura et al. 2014), and thus it requires effective extraction techniques in order to guarantee a high-quality PSO.
What is the main knowledge of Pumpkin Seed Oil (PSO)?
Policies and ethics This chapter summarizes the main knowledge of pumpkin seed oil (PSO) such as cultivation conditions, production technology, physicochemical properties, quality control parameters and effects on health. PSO is obtained from pumpkins belong to the Cucurbitaceae family,…