Pumpkin with black seeds

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Phycephaly, or squash, is also black seed pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia, syn. This is a really large vine whose leaves resemble a fig tree leaf, with shoots more than ten meters in length. The fruits resemble motley watermelons in their pattern. The flesh is white, juicy, like a melon, but not as sweet as it is sometimes claimed, the seeds are black, similar to watermelon.The leaves resemble a leaf of a fig tree, figs.

In classical Chinese medicine, it is used in the treatment of the pancreas, gastrointestinal tract. It is endowed with a very valuable property - it significantly increases the number of beta- as well as pancreatic cells, thereby improving its ability to produce insulin. Almost all parts of the plant are used: fruits, leaves, seeds and roots. Leaves contain a lot of calcium, sodium, phosphorus and iron.

The fruit and seeds are also edible, it is a source of vitamin B. They help with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, burns, psoriasis, rheumatism, wound healing, other skin diseases, even those accompanied by itching. It is traditionally used as an abortive, anthelmintic drug, for obesity, gout, pancreatic diseases. But one should not be too surprised at these properties of black-seed pumpkin, since the fruits of the ordinary pumpkin, which we grow in gardens, have no less healing qualities.

The fruits are used in cooking. They are fried in slices, salted, pickled, poured with syrup, vodka, covered with sugar. But this is in China. We can make a salad of carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes from them. All components are grated, salted, poured with sour cream. You can roll pieces of unripe fruits in flour or breadcrumbs and salted, fry them. Or come up with many other dishes with these valuable and healing fruits. Our mistresses are able to do this

The plant is unpretentious to the soil, but loves watering and intense lighting. It is better to grow in seedlings like lagenaria, since the vegetative period is quite long. When growing, it is worth taking care of the support (you can plant it under the fence), because the black-seed pumpkin, like other pumpkins, clings with a mustache to the support and, when grown in this way, bears fruit better and is less damaged by diseases.