The yellow in the rainbow

If you are trying to bring a rainbow to your plate—a diet style that promotes the consumption of different coloured fruits and vegetables—it makes sense to include flowers in your diet. Full of vitamins and antioxidants, flowers are the most colourful parts of the plant. But because they are so delicate, it is rare to find flowers in the market. Pumpkin flowers are an anomaly because even their limp flowers have ready buyers.

The pumpkin plant has two types of flowers: male flowers that are larger and have long stalks, and female flowers that are small and have short, sturdy stalks. Between the two, the female flowers are more common as only a few male flowers are needed to fertilise the female flowers—a male flower can produce as many as 40,000 pollen grains while a female flower needs 1,250 to 2,000 pollen grains to grow into a fruit. They open early in the morning and the pollen is dispersed by insects such as bees and thrips over the next 7 to 8 hours. The pollinators make multiple trips—as many as 12—from the male to female flowers during this period. After this, the flowers close. While the female flower then develops into the pumpkin, the male flower becomes redundant.

This is the reason only male flowers make their way to the market. After the pollination process is over, the farmers harvest the male flowers and bring them to the market to earn additional money. The flowers are sold at quite a premium, fetching around `5 a piece in Delhi. When turned into fritters using gram and rice flour (see recipes), they give a sweet flavour that cannot be matched by any other ingredient.

Very little research has been carried out on Cucurbita moschata, the most widely cultivated pumpkin in India. Researchers from Bangladesh, US and South Korea reported in the journal Molecules in September 2023 that the flowers of C. moschata have analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Other research suggests that the flowers of this climbing and trailing vine, are rich sources of many bioactive compounds, including carotenoids, phenolic compounds, vitamins C and E, saponins, and phytosterols. A study, carried out on another pumpkin species (C maxima) shows that as much as 85 per cent of flowers are water. However, the researchers from the Department of Food Technology, Vignan’s Foundation of Science Technology and Research, Andhra Pradesh, say that the flowers had enough phytonutrients and fatty acids to make them useful as a functional food for the future. Their analysis shows that the flowers have 11.5 mg of sodium, 18.2 mg potassium, 17.6 mg of calcium and 10.3 mg anthocyanin per 100 g. The results published in SN Applied Sciences in 2021 also report that flowers have several fatty acids, such as oleic acid, myristic acid and stearic acid.

Pumpkins are believed to originate from Mexico, where their flowers are enjoyed fresh or canned. However, in Latin America, a different pumpkin species, C pepo, is predominant, distinct from the variety found in India. While the exact origins of C. moschata remain uncertain, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science in March 2023 suggests that India-Myanmar could be the centre of origin of this species. This is supported from the fact that pumpkin is part of the mahaprasad served at the Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha, where only indigenous vegetables are used for preparation of food.

The flowers can be consumed raw in salads, cooked with vegetables or steamed and consumed as soup. They not only provide a variety of phytonutrients, but they can also make the food look visually appealing. In India, they are used more as the primary ingredient and not just as a garnish. India is the second largest producer of this gourd, second only to China. India and China had a share of nearly 50 per cent of the total pumpkin production.

The Cucurbita genus includes many different species, which are known as pumpkins. Pumpkin is called kumra in Assamese and Bengali, kashiphal in Hindi, kumpalam in Malayalam, kala bhopala in Marathi, pucani in Tamil and gummadi in Telugu.

It is an important tropical vegetable that is cultivated around the world as it has a high yield, a good shelf life, a high nutritive value, and is sturdy enough to be transported easily. The fruit has chemical attributes that make it a suitable raw material to prepare a wine with an alcohol content of 11.37 per cent. The pumpkin plant has creeping or climbing stems bearing tendrils. However, it is generally left to spread on the ground, as the fruits can weigh as much as 45 kg. In India, the vine is allowed to spread over the roofs of the huts too. Researchers report in the journal Ecology of Food and Nutrition in 2015 that the Oraon tribe in Jharkhand knew about over 130 varieties of indigenous foods and pumpkin flowers were among the three flowers used by the community.

This was first published in the 1-15 May, 2024 print edition of Down To Earth