Overview of Cucurbitaceae Families

The family Cucurbitaceae has a wide range of vegetable or fruit crops that are very important to the national or local economy. Ancient agricultural and medical texts as well as these folktales frequently refer to cultivated members of the Cucurbitaceae families. The plants of Cucurbitaceae family are rich in phytochemicals such as terpenoids, glycosides, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, and carotenoids responsible for the therapeutic effect. Various parts of these plants exhibit an excess pharmacological activity such as hypolipidemic, anticancer, antidiabetic activity, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. Among the members of the Cucurbitaceae family, pumpkins and squash (Cucurbita moschata Duch., Cucurbita pepo L., and Cucurbita maxima Duch. ex Lam), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus L.), and melon (Cucumis melo L.) are particularly nutritious due to their beneficial vitamins and minerals. Consumption of some species as food or medicine without proper identification could be dangerous, as some poisonous wild species share a close resemblance with edible ones. A complete, safe, efficient, and cost-effective global conservation system for Cucurbitaceae genetic resources should be available, with germplasm and specific accession level information easily accessible, ideally in centralized global databases like Genesys.