Watermelon is nature's Viagra

Watermelon is nature's Viagra



If you thought watermelon is just a fruit that refreshes parched throats, here’s something you should know - the juicy fruit has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase libido.

The finding results from a study led by an Indian researcher in US. “The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body,” said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. "We’ve always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important health benefits grows longer with each study,” he added.

Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions, Patil said. In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline, whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. It has the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.

Scientists know that when watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted to arginine through certain enzymes. Arginine is an amino acid that works wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system, Patil said. “The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who suffer from obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said Patil. “Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it,” he added.

While there are many psychological and physiological problems that can cause impotence, extra nitric oxide could help those who need increased blood flow, which would also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.
“Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra, but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects,” Patil said.

The benefits of watermelon don’t end there, he said. Arginine also helps the urea cycle by removing ammonia and other toxic compounds from our bodies. Citrulline, the precursor to arginine, is found in higher concentrations in the rind of watermelons than the flesh.

- Times of India.

Pubmed indexed 637 research articles on watermelon. Below are latest 20 articles.

1: Tarachiwin L, Masako O, Fukusaki E.
Quality Evaluation and Prediction of Citrullus lanatus by (1)H NMR-Based
Metabolomics and Multivariate Analysis.
J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Jun 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18588311

2: van Breemen RB, Pajkovic N.
Multitargeted therapy of cancer by lycopene.
Cancer Lett. 2008 Jun 26. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18585855

3: Bangalore DV, McGlynn WG, Scott DD.
Effects of fruit maturity on watermelon ultrastructure and intracellular lycopene
distribution.
J Food Sci. 2008 Jun;73(5):S222-8.
PMID: 18577014

4: Gholamalizadeh R, Vahdat A, Keshavarz T, Elahinia A, Bananej K.
Occurrence and distribution of ten viruses infecting cucurbit plants in guilan
province, iran.
Acta Virol. 2008;52(2):113-8.
PMID: 18564898

5: Wechter WP, Levi A, Harris KR, Davis AR, Fei Z, Katzir N, Giovannoni JJ,
Salman-Minkov A, Hernandez A, Thimmapuram J, Tadmor Y, Portnoy V, Trebitsh T.
Gene expression in developing watermelon fruit.
BMC Genomics. 2008 Jun 5;9:275.
PMID: 18534026

6: Wells CD, Harrison ME, Gurudu SR, Crowell MD, Byrne TJ, Depetris G, Sharma VK.
Treatment of gastic antral vascular ectasia (watermelon stomach) with endoscopic
band ligation.
Gastrointest Endosc. 2008 Jun 2. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18533150

7: Farooq Z, Iqbal Z, Mushtaq S, Muhammad G, Iqbal MZ, Arshad M.
Ethnoveterinary practices for the treatment of parasitic diseases in livestock in
Cholistan desert (Pakistan).
J Ethnopharmacol. 2008 Jul 23;118(2):213-9. Epub 2008 Mar 29.
PMID: 18524514

8: Kumar S, Kumar D, Jusha M, Saroha K, Singh N, Vashishta B.
Antioxidant and free radical scavenging potential of Citrullus colocynthis (L.)
Schrad. methanolic fruit extract.
Acta Pharm. 2008 Jun 1;58(2):215-221.
PMID: 18515231

9: Marie I, Ducrotte P, Antonietti M, Herve S, Levesque H.
Watermelon stomach in systemic sclerosis: its incidence and management.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2008 May 21. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18498445

10: Asero R, Monsalve R, Barber D.
Profilin sensitization detected in the office by skin prick test: a study of
prevalence and clinical relevance of profilin as a plant food allergen.
Clin Exp Allergy. 2008 Jun;38(6):1033-7. Epub 2008 Apr 13.
PMID: 18489029

11: Yakoubi S, Lecoq H, Desbiez C.
Algerian watermelon mosaic virus (AWMV): a new potyvirus species in the PRSV
cluster.
Virus Genes. 2008 Aug;37(1):103-9. Epub 2008 May 17.
PMID: 18484176

12: Hoelmer KA, Simmons AM.
Yellow sticky trap catches of parasitoids of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera:
Aleyrodidae) in vegetable crops and their relationship to in-field populations.
Environ Entomol. 2008 Apr;37(2):391-9.
PMID: 18419911

13: Vonderheide AP, Bernard CE, Hieber TE, Kauffman PE, Morgan JN, Melnyk LJ.
Surface-to-food pesticide transfer as a function of moisture and fat content.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2008 Apr 16. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18414514

14: Mullai K, Jebanesan A, Pushpanathan T.
Mosquitocidal and repellent activity of the leaf extract of Citrullus vulgaris
(cucurbitaceae) against the malarial vector, Anopheles stephensi liston (diptera
culicidae).
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2008 Jan-Feb;12(1):1-7.
PMID: 18401966 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

15: Mort A, Zheng Y, Qiu F, Nimtz M, Bell-Eunice G.
Structure of xylogalacturonan fragments from watermelon cell-wall pectin.
Endopolygalacturonase can accommodate a xylosyl residue on the galacturonic acid
just following the hydrolysis site.
Carbohydr Res. 2008 May 19;343(7):1212-21. Epub 2008 Mar 20.
PMID: 18394594

16: Pieroni A, Gray C.
Herbal and food folk medicines of the Russlanddeutschen living in
Künzelsau/Taläcker, South-Western Germany.
Phytother Res. 2008 Jul;22(7):889-901.
PMID: 18384192

17: Vaughn Katherine LS, Clausen Edgar C, King Jerry W, Howard Luke R, Julie CD.
Extraction conditions affecting supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of lycopene
from watermelon.
Bioresour Technol. 2008 Nov;99(16):7835-41. Epub 2008 Apr 2.
PMID: 18378137

18: Bailey SL, Chang SC, Griffiths B, Graham AN, Saffery R, Earle E, Choo KH,
Kalitsis P.
ZNF397, a new class of interphase to early prophase-specific, SCAN-zinc-finger,
mammalian centromere protein.
Chromosoma. 2008 Mar 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18369653

19: Sreenath K, Venkatesh YP.
Analysis of erythritol in foods by polyclonal antibody-based indirect competitive
ELISA.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2008 Mar 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 18369603

20: Salman-Minkov A, Levi A, Wolf S, Trebitsh T.
ACC synthase genes are polymorphic in watermelon (Citrullus spp.) and
differentially expressed in flowers and in response to auxin and gibberellin.
Plant Cell Physiol. 2008 May;49(5):740-50. Epub 2008 Mar 26.
PMID: 18367517