Evaluation of biochemical composition of hulled and hull-less genotypes of pumpkin seeds grown in subtropical India.

Pumpkin seeds are one of the functional foods with most potential having myriad of uses, and functioning as both edible seeds and oilseeds. Nevertheless, their utilization is restricted to the presence of a thick seed coat (hull) which subjects them to the process of decortication, increasing the farmers' expense as well as limiting their utilization as oilseeds. Therefore, in the present study, characterization of the biochemical composition of the hulled (Punjab Chappan Kadoo-1 abbreviated as PCK-1) and hull-less (PAU Magaz Kadoo-1 abbreviated as PMK-1) genotype of pumpkin seeds was undertaken to assess the nutritional differences and their efficient application; PMK-1 is a new cultivar of pumpkin released by Punjab Agricultural University in 2018.