Foliage and fruit:-The pomegranate or botanically called Punica granatum is a fruit-bearing deciduous small tree growing to 5 to 8 metre height. The bark of the tree is light brown. The leaves of pomegranate are opposite or sub-opposite, glossy, narrow oblong, 3 to 7 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are bright red, 3 cm in diameter, with 4 to 5 petals. The fruit is 5 to 12cm in diameter with a rounded hexagonal shape, and has thick reddish skin and around 600 seeds. The fruits ripen 6 to 7 months after flowering. The seeds and surrounding pulp, ranging in colour from white to deep red, called arils, are edible. There are also some pulp of purple colours also. In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is typically in season from September to January. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is in season from March to May.
Origin & Cultivation:- Pomegranate is native to the region from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to the Himalayas in northern India. It is also widely cultivated throughout the drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaysia, the East Indies, and tropical Africa. It originated from Iran and cultivated in Georgia, Armenia and the Mediterranean region for several millennia. The cultivation of the pomegranate has a long history in Armenia, where decayed remains of pomegranates dating back to 1000 BC have been found. Introduced into Latin America and California by Spanish settlers in 1769, pomegranate is now cultivated in parts of California and Arizona for juice production. In the functional food industry, pomegranate is included in a novel category of exotic fruits called super fruits.
Food Values :- After opening the pomegranate by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the arils (seeds) are separated from the peel and internal white pulp membranes. The entire seeds are consumed raw. The taste differs depending on subspecies of pomegranate and its ripeness. It can be very sweet or sour, but most fruits are moderate in taste, with sour notes from the acidic tannins contained in the aril juice. Grenadine syrup is a thickened and sweetened pomegranate juice used in cocktail mixing. A thick sauce is made from pomegranate juice. Wild pomegranate seeds are sometimes used as a spice known as anardana, which literally means pomegranate seeds.
Potential Health Benefits:-100 ml pomegranate aril juice provides about 16% of an adult’s daily vitamin C requirement. Pomegranate is a good source of vitamin B (pantothenic acid), potassium and antioxidant polyphenols. The most abundant polyphenols in pomegranate juice are the hydrolyzable tannins called punicalagins which have free-radical scavenging properties. Punicalagins are absorbed into the human body and may have dietary value as antioxidants. Many food and dietary supplement makers have found advantages of using pomegranate phenolic extracts instead of the juice as ingredients in their products. Many pomegranate extracts are essentially ellagic acid which may absorb into the body only after parent molecule polyphenolic punicalagins are consumed.
Medicinal properties:-
Reduce Heart Disease:- Juice of the pomegranate has been found effective in reducing heart disease risk factors, including LDL oxidation, macrophage oxidative status, and foam cell formation, all of which are steps in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Tannins such as Punicalagins have been identified as the primary components responsible for the reduction of oxidative stress which led to these risk factors. Pomegranate has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure by inhibiting serum angiotensin-converting enzyme.
Effective Against Cancer:- Pomegra- nate seed oil is effective against proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro.
Pomegranate juice or fruit extracts may be effective against prostate cancer, lung cancer or osteoarthritis.
Effective Against Dental Plaque:- The juice may also have antiviral and antibacterial effects against dental plaque.
Diarrhoea Treatment:-Pomegranate juice is a mild astringent, used to treat diarrhoea, and reduces some fevers.
Anti-parasites:-The root bark is used to treat intestinal parasites, mainly tapeworm. The alkaloids narcotise the tapeworms so they lose their grip to the intestinal wall and are expelled.
Antioxidant:-Pomegranate contains many phytochemicals with antioxidant action, such as ellagic acid. Ellagic acid has anticarcinogenic, antiatherogenic and antifibrosis activity.
Skin Whitening:-Studies have shown that ellagic acid can suppress skin pigmentation when applied topically or when administered orally. Pomegranate extract has skin-whitening property. This effect was probably caused by the inhibition of proliferation of melanocytes and melanin synthesis.
Other Uses:- The pomegranate flowers are used to make a red dye. The pomegranate juice is used for the production of grenadine. Because of its high tannin content the pomegranate rind can be used to tan leather.