Pumpkin seeds, their extract and pumpkin seed oil are sold as supplements mainly for urinary symptoms from an enlarged prostate (BPH) and for male pattern hair loss. Pumpkin seed oil has been shown to block 5-alpha reductase and to have antiandrogen effects in rats (Cho 2014).
Also known as: pumpkin seed oil, pumpkin seed extract.
Pumpkin seed has no intake value. The GRANU prostate trial used 5 g of pumpkin seed twice a day or 500 mg of seed extract twice a day; the hair trial used 400 mg of pumpkin seed oil a day. These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
It is sold in the US as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling.
Prostate: in the 12-month GRANU trial of 1,431 men aged 50 to 80 with BPH symptoms (Vahlensieck 2015), the share of men whose symptom score fell by 5 points or more did not differ between pumpkin seed extract and placebo. With whole pumpkin seed it was 58.5% versus 47.3% on placebo, a difference the authors called descriptively significant and said needs a confirmatory study.
Hair: in a 24-week trial of 76 men with male pattern hair loss (Cho 2014), 400 mg of pumpkin seed oil a day increased hair counts by 40% on average, versus 10% on placebo, with no difference in side effects. See also topical minoxidil.
We could not find a published half-life or time to peak for pumpkin seed or pumpkin seed oil that we could cite, so we do not list one.
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