Pumpkin: three different foods under one word

Flesh, seed and seed oil are three different foods, and the evidence sits on each of them separately. The flesh is eaten for vitamin A, and our own number for it is shaky. USDA's six records for raw pumpkin run from 87 to 778 micrograms RAE, a ninefold spread with no sample range published to explain it. One cup of cooked pumpkin works out at 995.9 micrograms RAE, or 111 percent of the Daily Value, and that figure is recalculated from the per-100-gram entry, so it inherits the same spread. Take it as an order of magnitude. Read past 100 percent calmly. The upper limit for vitamin A, 3000 micrograms a day, applies only to preformed vitamin A from animal foods and supplements, not to the carotenoids in a plant, so a cup of pumpkin does not take you towards a ceiling. The limit and the birth defects that go with going over it belong to retinol and to some retinoid medicines, and pumpkin has none of either. The seed is a separate story: 65 g of it eaten with a high- carbohydrate meal cut the blood sugar rise by about 35 percent in fifteen people, and 65 g of seed is roughly 360 kcal, which is not a garnish. The hair result people search for belongs to pumpkin seed oil, a concentrated extract of the seed, and it comes from a network meta-analysis that does not say how many trials tested it or how big the effect was. Those two blanks are the source's, not ours. The paper reports that hair density improved and prints no number for it anywhere we can read, so nobody can tell you whether the change would be visible in a mirror.

The numbers, per 100 g

How much is actually in it

• The vitamin A in pumpkin varies ninefold between USDA records alone, before Britain is even brought into it. — 6 USDA records, reference entry Pumpkin, raw (FDC 168448, SR Legacy), against CoFID Pumpkin, flesh only, raw (code 13-326) (n = 6 USDA records) Evidence E source
  USDA vitamin A ranges from 87 to 778 µg RAE across its 6 records with 426 µg in the reference entry; CoFID publishes carotene 450 µg, retinol 0 and retinol equivalent 75 µg for the same food, and 450 divided by 6 is exactly 75, which is the older 1 to 6 carotene conversion, while USDA RAE uses 1 to 12 for beta-carotene; copper 0.127 mg USDA against 0.02 CoFID, vitamin C 9 mg against 14

What a real portion looks like

• One cup of cooked pumpkin carries more vitamin A than a whole day needs. — one FNDDS food with three household measures (n = fdc_id 2709692) Evidence E source
  Vitamin A 433 µg RAE per 100 g; 1 cup = 230 g = 995.9 µg RAE, which is 111% of the 900 µg Daily Value; 1 cup mashed = 250 g = 1082.5 µg; quantity not specified = 115 g = 497.9 µg

What your body absorbs

• Children absorbed the vitamin A in squash and other carotene-rich vegetables just as well on very little fat as on four times more. — 116 Filipino schoolchildren aged 9 to 12 in three groups (n = 39, 39, 38) fed 4.2 mg provitamin A carotenoids a day, mainly beta-carotene, from carrots, bok choy, squash and swamp cabbage, with 7, 15 or 29 g of fat a day (n = 116) Evidence B source
  All three fat levels produced similar increases: serum beta-carotene 5-fold, alpha-carotene 19-fold, beta-cryptoxanthin 2-fold, total-body vitamin A pool size 2-fold and liver vitamin A 2-fold; serum retinol did not change significantly, and the prevalence of low liver vitamin A below 0.07 µmol/g fell from 35% to 7%

What cooking and storage change

• Boiling costs pumpkin up to nearly half its vitamin C, and what happens to its vitamin A our copy of the table cannot say. — group 11, Vegetables and Vegetable Products; 25 method rows carry a vitamin C factor (n = 25 method rows) Evidence E source
  Boiled under a cover of water and drained retains 55% of vitamin C, boiled in little water and drained 60%, cooked from frozen and drained 60%, baked 70%, and boiled with the water used 70%

What it does to your health

• Sixty-five grams of pumpkin seed eaten with a high-carbohydrate meal cut the blood sugar rise by about a third. — normoglycaemic adults, 25 for food intake and 15 for glycaemia, each eating a control meal, a meal with 65 g pumpkin seed and a meal with 65 g flaxseed (n = 25) Evidence B source
  Glucose incremental area under the curve was about 35% lower after the pumpkin seed meal than the control (P = 0.025), while flaxseed did not differ from control (P = 0.257); glucose at each individual time point did not differ between the three meals, and appetite, energy and macronutrient intake were unchanged
• Pumpkin seed oil was one of five supplements that improved hair density in a network comparison of nineteen trials. — 1658 patients with androgenetic alopecia across 19 randomised controlled trials, 894 on supplements and 764 controls, covering 16 different supplements (n = 1658) Evidence A source
  Against placebo, standardised plant extracts (Nutrafol), apple extract, tocotrienols, pumpkin seed oil and a Cistanche and Laminaria compound extract all significantly improved hair density

What people believe that the data does not support

• Europe refused a hair claim that included pumpkin seed oil, and it refused it as part of a seven-ingredient mixture. — food labelling in the European Union Evidence E source
  Status Non-authorised for the claim Helps to increase hair number, submitted for a combination of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, D-biotin and pumpkin seed oil (Cucurbita pepo L.); this is the only entry in the whole register mentioning pumpkin and no pumpkin claim is authorised

The bottom line

Cook pumpkin with some fat in the meal and the carotenoids will be absorbed, and you need less fat than you might think. Over nine weeks, 116 Filipino schoolchildren eating carrots, bok choy, squash and swamp cabbage roughly doubled their total-body vitamin A stores, and 7 g of fat a day did that as well as 29 g. A third of those children started with depleted liver stores, and depleted people absorb and retain more, so a well-fed adult may see less. Squash was one of four vegetables in the meals, and the trial cannot separate it from the rest. On what cooking costs, we owe you an admission. The USDA retention table works on food groups rather than on pumpkin. For vegetables it gives 55 percent of vitamin C kept when boiled under a cover of water and drained, and 70 percent when baked. Boiled with the water used in the dish it is 70 percent too, and that is the number that applies to a soup. Vitamin A is the nutrient pumpkin is actually eaten for, and the table does carry retention factors for it, but our own parse of the table skipped them. So we cannot tell you what baking costs the thing that counts. That gap is ours and not the source's. The honesty about vitamin A is owed to the other columns too. In our own USDA rows raw pumpkin carries 0.5 g of fibre per 100 g and canned pumpkin 2.9 g, which is nearly six times as much. We have not found the reason for that gap and we are not going to invent one. Read any single row of the table as a number for the form of pumpkin it names, not for pumpkin. One last thing about the seed oil. Europe was asked to allow the claim that a mixture of six B vitamins and pumpkin seed oil helps increase hair number, and refused it. A refusal for a seven-ingredient mixture says nothing clean about the oil by itself in either direction, and it is the only entry in the entire register that mentions pumpkin.

Sources

1. pum-p1-05 · reference dataset comparison
   USDA Pumpkin, raw [FDC 168448, sr_legacy] vitamin A 426 µg RAE, 87-778 across 6 records; copper 0.127 mg; vitamin C 9 mg || CoFID Pumpkin, flesh only, raw [13-326] Carotene (µg) 450 · Retinol (µg) 0 · Retinol Equivalent (µg) 75 · Copper (mg) 0.02 · Vitamin C (mg) 14
   USDA FoodData Central (FDC 168448) and CoFID 2021, Public Health England / OGL v3.0 (code 13-326) · checked 2026-09-22
2. pum-p1-06 · reference dataset
   Pumpkin, cooked · Vitamin A, RAE 433 UG per 100 g [fdc_id 2709692] · 1 cup 230 g 995.9 UG · 1 cup, mashed 250 g 1082.5 UG · Quantity not specified 115 g 497.9 UG
   USDA FNDDS 2021-2023, Pumpkin, cooked (fdc_id 2709692) · checked 2026-09-22
3. pum-p1-01 · randomised controlled feeding trial with stable-isotope dilution
   Similar increases in mean serum beta-carotene (5-fold), alpha-carotene (19-fold), and beta-cryptoxanthin (2-fold) concentrations; total-body vitamin A pool size (2-fold); and liver vitamin A (2-fold) concentrations were observed after 9 wk in the 3 study groups...The overall prevalence of low liver vitamin A (<0.07 mumol/g) decreased from 35% to 7%.
   The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2007 · checked 2026-09-22
4. pum-p1-07 · reference dataset
   vitamin_c_mg · group 11 Vegetables and Vegetable Products · 3005 VEG,GREENS,BOILED,WATER COVER DRAIN — 55% · 3004 VEG,GREENS,BOILD,LITTLE WATER DRAIN — 60% · 3019 VEG,GREENS,COOKED FROM FROZEN,DRAIN — 60% · 3001 VEG,GREENS,BAKED — 70% · 3006 VEG,GREENS,BOILED,WATER USED — 70%
   USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6 (2007) · checked 2026-09-22
5. pum-p1-02 · randomised placebo-controlled crossover trial
   Glucose iAUC was significantly lower in P compared with C (reduction of ~35%, P = .025). There was no significant differences in glucose iAUC between F and C (P = .257).
   Nutrition Research, 2018 · checked 2026-09-22
6. pum-p1-03 · systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
   A total of 19 RCTs involving 1,658 AGA patients were included, with 894 patients in the supplement group and 764 in the control group. Sixteen dietary supplements were investigated. Results showed that compared with placebo, standardized plant extracts (Nutrafol), apple extract (AMSbzs, AMS), tocotrienols, pumpkin seed oil (PSO), and a compound extract of Cistanche and Laminaria (MK-R7) significantly improved hair density.
   Frontiers in Nutrition, 2025 · checked 2026-09-22
7. pum-p1-04 · regulatory register entry
   POL-HC-8405 A combination of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, D-biotin and pumpkin seed oil (Cucurbita pepo L.) Helps to increase hair number -/- Non-authorised
   EU Register on nutrition and health claims, claim POL-HC-8405, snapshot of 2026-09-21 · checked 2026-09-22