Homemade Remedies Using Leftover Pumpkins

Canadian Thanksgiving is over, and the American Thanksgiving is just around the corner. People have their pumpkins ready for that delicious treat of pumpkin pies and pumpkin spice lattes. Some got their pumpkins for that crazy yet beautifully crafted Jack-o’-lanterns. But then again, what comes to your mind when you think about pumpkins? Is it only limited to those sweet desserts, drinks, and Halloween hoorah?

Little do people know that these orange gourds offer many health benefits! Yes, apart from including them in your diet, there are still many things that you can do to your leftover pumpkins. These things will benefit your health as much as they give you a happy Thanksgiving or a scary Halloween!

Pumpkin Salt Foot Scrub for Callouses

Callouses are the thickened layers on your skin brought about by repeated pressure. These callouses are the hard and raised bumps you see on the area that receives most of the pressure such as at the bottom of your foot.

Particularly, you may see them on your heel, the ball of your foot, or your big toe. Though callouses do not hurt, they are not great to look at aesthetically. Hence, many people want to get rid of them. One underrated yet easy way to remove callouses is the use of pumpkin!

What You Need:

•         ½ cup pumpkin puree
•         2 tbsp olive oil
•         Salt

Mix pumpkin puree with olive oil. Add salt enough to make a paste. Place your foot over a tub or a bowl to prevent mess and apply the paste on the affected area.

Massage well for 10-15 minutes. Rinse your foot with lukewarm water and dry gently. This will soften the callous as well as provide moisture to dry skin. Do this 3x a week for the best results.

Pumpkin Juice for Gastrointestinal Problems

Common gastrointestinal problems can be solved with the help of your Halloween leftover pumpkin! You might have eaten lots during holidays (as all of us do) and digestion problems may occur. Fret not! Pumpkin comes to the rescue. Eating a boiled pumpkin will aid in your digestion.

What You Need:

•         2 cups pumpkin chunks
•         Salt
•         Black pepper

Boil pumpkin chunks in water until it is tender, but not too soft to become mushy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simply eat the boiled pumpkin. You can include it on your regular meals, or perhaps add it on a salad for a different touch.

Pumpkin Seed Oil for Tapeworms

Ingesting food or water that is infected with tapeworm eggs or larvae will lead to tapeworm infection. This infection can range from mild to severe depending on where the tapeworm lodged in your body. If by any chance, it lodged in your body organs and tissues, it can lead to serious complications. Take note, adult tapeworms can live inside the body of a human host for 30 years! Hence, you need to be careful and treat it as soon as you can.

How to Make the Oil: This recipe can make approximately 100ml of oil.

•       Gather 250 grams of pumpkin seeds. Manually separate the seeds from the pumpkin pulp.
•         Wash and dry the seeds thoroughly. Make sure that you have cleaned the seeds from all its fibrous content. Thus, washing thoroughly is really important.
•         At 140F, roast the seeds for a few minutes. The time depends on how the seeds react to the temperature. That is why you need to carefully check them until they are roasted enough, but not burned.
•         Use a mortar and pestle to press the seeds and squeeze out the dark oil.
•         Collect the oil in an airtight container and let it rest for about 4 weeks.

What You Need:

•         Pumpkin seed oil
•         1 tbsp Castor oil

For a tapeworm infection, drink 30ml of pumpkin seed oil on an empty stomach. Repeat the procedure after 2 hours. After another 2 hours, take another dose followed by castor oil.

If by any chance, you find this whole process inconvenient, you may opt to go for the easier version to get rid of the parasite. All you have to do is eat 1 cup of pumpkin seeds a day for several days.

Pumpkin for Removing Dark Spots

Pumpkin also helps in removing dark spots on your skin. All you need to do is make a mixture by adding :

• 1 tablespoon pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice 
• 1 teaspoon vitamin E oil.

Mix this mixture well together and then apply it on your damp face. Leave it on the face for over half an hour or until it dries. Later, wash off with lukewarm water.

Pumpkin for Dry Hair

Pumpkin isn’t only good for eating, but also for a lot of beautification processes as well. It is good for the skin and hair.

Many face mask and body scrub recipes are available to help your skin replenish its moisture and attain a certain glow. When it comes to hair health, pumpkin is also a perfect good-to-go home remedy to avoid dry and frizzy hair.

What You Need:

•         2 cups of cooked pumpkin, chopped
•         1 tbsp coconut oil
•         1 tbsp honey
•         1 tbsp yogurt

Mix and puree all ingredients in a blender. Clean and shampoo your hair. Rinse the shampoo thoroughly. Apply the pureed mixture on your hair and cover with a shower cap. Leave on your hair for 15 minutes before rinsing thoroughly.

As Halloween or Thanksgivings come to an end, you don’t have to throw away your unused and leftover pumpkins. These amazing things that you can do from your leftover pumpkins are worth a try! Not only will these make you feel and look healthier, but these are ingenious ways of making use of leftovers that most definitely will end up in the compost if you can’t think of anything to use it for. 

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