This weekend many a family will carve a jack o'lantern and as the holiday season commences, pumpkins will be used in pies and in lattes, but did you know they also be used to treat that pesky vaginal yeast infection or your baby's diaper rash? It's no trick. Scientists at Chosun University in South Korea have extracted a protein from pumpkin rinds that they claim destroys the fungus that causes vaginal yeast infections and diaper rash, among other health problems.

The protein, called PR-2, has been proven to hinder the growth of a total of ten different species of fungi, including Candida albicans, the fungus that causes yeast infections. Pumpkins have long been used medicinally in countries like Korea, China and India to treat ailments such as kidney inflammation. According to Kyung-SooHahm and Yoonkyung Park, authors of the study, a medicine could be made from the PR-2 protein that will treat yeast infections.