• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.527-533
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• 2003

This study was performed for increasing the consumption and developing the function of pumpkin(Cucurbita moschata DUCH.) seed. The changes of the contents of general chemical compositions, fatty acids, amino acids, ascorbic acid and ${\beta}$-carotene during sprouting were analyzed. Also, the bitter taste, which was produced during sprouting, were purified by using thin layer chromatography and preparative high pressure liquid chromatography. The purified bitter compound was identified by mass spectrum and nuclear magnetic resonance($^1$H '||'&'||' $\^$13/C-NMR). Weight of pumpkin seed sprout was increased to 348.4% and the length of stem was dramatically increased at 8 days. In each head and stem parts of the pumpkin seed sprout, the contents of protein and lipid were decreased, however, the contents of fiber, ash and soluble inorganic nitrogen were increased. The fatty acids of the pumpkin seed sprout were mainly represented as linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid. During sprouting, palmitic acid was gradually increased, reversely, linoleic acid was gradually decreased. The general amino acids of head part in the pumpkin seed sprout grown at 23$^{\circ}C$ during 8 days were orderly more contained glycine, alanine, arginine, cystein and proline. Those of free amino acids were orderly more contained arginine, threonine, alanine and glutamine. The contents of L-ascorbic acid and ${\beta}$-camtene of the pumpkin seed sprout were gradually increased with increasing sprouting days. The bitter taste material of head part of the pumpkin seed sprout was detected at Rf value 0.72 on silicagel TLC plate and separuted as one peak by HPLC. The chemical structure of the puified bitter compound was identified as a cucurbitacin glycoside by MS and NMR. The content of bitter compound at 8 days was contained 42.2 mg per 1kg sprout head.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.834-840
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• 2008

In order to improve the use of pumpkin seed, the present study was performed to isolate compositions of the bitter components which were not seen in pumpkin seed itself but newly biosynthesized during germination of the seed. The compositions isolated were then further purified by TLC and preparative HPLC in which a fraction with Rf 0.73 and RT 10.3 was obtained. Cucurbitacin E with molecular weight of 557 from the fraction was finally identified by subsequent structural analysis of LC-MS/MS. The production of cucurbitacin E peaked with 224.7 mg/kg at 4 days of germination at $20^{\circ}C$ with the water supply at ntervals of 48 hrs in the darkness, while that of cucurbitacin E reached 146.7 mg/kg in the brightness. In vitro-cell based assays demonstrated that the isolated and purified cucurbitacin E inhibited proliferation of A549 lung cancer cells and suppressed expression of the IL-$1{\beta}$- or PMA-induced cyclooxygenase-2, an inflammatory protein in A549 cells, suggesting its anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory activities.