EFFECTS OF SOME CUCURBITA SEEDS ON ANIMAL 
METABOLISM 
By Benjamin Masurovsky 1 
New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station 
I. INFLUENCE OF PUMPKIN AND SQUASH SEEDS UPON KIDNEY 
EXCRETION 
The plants of the pumpkin family, Cucurbita pepo L., C. moschata 
Duchesne, and C. maxima Duchesne, are natives of the American conti¬ 
nent, but the fruits of both pumpkin and squash are used to a greater 
extent in some European countries than in the United States. For 
instance, in Ukraine (Little Russia) the pulp is fed to the farm live stock 
and some seeds are given to the farm animals when the entire fruit is 
fed, but a large quantity of the pumpkin and squash seeds is consumed 
as a dainty by the people. 
PURPOSE AND PLAN OF EXPERIMENT 
The belief is held by many farmers that the seeds of pumpkin and 
squash have injurious effects upon the animal when fed in the amounts 
found in the entire fruit, but no careful experiments are on record to 
disprove the belief that unless the pumpkin and squash seeds are fed 
in excess they are not harmful. The purpose of this experiment is to 
throw some light on this question. 
Since the main objection to feeding whole pumpkins lies in the opinion 
that the seeds cause abnormal urination, the writer of this paper ex¬ 
perimented on himself by including in the daily diet given amounts of 
pumpkin and squash seeds freed from the seed coat and analyzing the 
daily volumes of the kidney excretion. 
The experiment was carried on in two distinct periods, each period 
consisting of three consecutive days. The first period included March 
17, 18, and 19. The second period 2 covered March 24, 25, and 26. 
During the first period a basal diet was followed, while during the second 
period an addition of given quantities of pumpkin and squash seeds 
without the hulls was used. 
Although data of all the three days for each period are given in the 
tables, the results of only the last two days of each period were taken for 
comparison. The reason was that the results of the first day of each 
period might represent partial metabolic products from the day previous 
to the experiment. 
1 I wish to express my thanks to Dr. A. R. Moore, head of the Biological Dept, of Rutgers College, for 
helpful suggestions in this work and to Prof. H. R. Lewis, Poultry Husbandman at the New Jersey Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station, Prof. Frank G. Helyar, Prof. W. Ch. Skelly, and Mr. J. Thompson for assist¬ 
ance with the experiments. 
2 During March 20, 21, 22, and 23 small quantities of pumpkin and squash seeds were included in the diet 
to accustom the digestive system to the material to be used in the second period of the experiment. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
yl 
(523) 
Vol. XXI, No 8 
July 15, 1921 
Key No. N. J.-7 
