Pomegranate:Ancient Fruit of Life Yields Modern Promise...

  seminal trace...Pomegranate Seed Extract.Polyphenols 40%80%.Pomegranate Hull Extract,Ellagic Acid 90%.CAS.RN.NO:84961-57-9.90045-46-8.Punica granatum,Pomegranate Extract.Guava Extract....

   Basic Botanical Info of Pomegranate:

 Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.)
 Official Latin Name: Punica granatum
 Plant family:Punicaceae (pomegranate family).
 Synonyms:Grenadier. Cortex granati. Ecorce de Granade. Granatwurzelrinde. Melogranato. Malicorio. Scorzo del Melogranati. Cortezade Granada.
 Parts Used:The root, bark, the fruits, the rind of the fruit, the flowers.
 Habitat:Western Asia. Now grows widely in Mediterranean countries, China
 Other Names:Albanian:Shega Arabic:Rumman, Roman Armenian:Noor, Nur Assamese:Dalim Azeri:Nar,Hap
 Bengali:Dalim;Bulgarian:Nar;Catalan:Magraner;Croatian:Nar;Czech:Granatovnik, Marhanik, Granatovnik obecny, Granatove jablko;Dhivehi:Annaaru;
 Danish:Granatble;Dutch:Granaatappel;Esperanto:Granato;Estonian:Harilik granaadipuu;Farsi:Anar;Finnish:Granaattiomena;French:Grenade;
 Georgian:Broceuli;German:Granatapfel;Greek:Rodia, Rodi;Gujarati:Dadam (fresh fruit), Dadamna bee (dried seeds);Hebrew:Rimmon, Rimon;
 Hindi:Anar (fresh fruit),Anardana (dried seeds);Hungarian:Granatalma;Icelandic:Granatepli;Indonesian:Delima;Italian:Melograno;Seongnyu,Songnyu;
 Laotian:Kok mak phi la;Lithuanian:Paprastasis granatmedis;Malay:Delima;Malayalam:Matalam;Maltese:Rummiena;Dalimb (fresh fruit); Anardana, Dalimbache dane (dried seeds);
 Anar:Darim;Oriya:Dalimba;Pahlawi:Anaar;Romanian:Rodie;Granat, Granatnik;Sanskrit:Darimba, Madhubiija;Slovenian:Granatno jabolko;
 Spanish:Granada;Swahili:Komamanga, Kudhumani;Swedish:Granat apple;Tagalog:Granada.
 
 Used plant part:
 The interior of the pomegranate fruit is composed of many pink-red sections of pulp-like tissue, each of which contains a small seed grain. These sections are usually, slightly inaccurately, referred to as "pomegranate seeds".
 Dried pomegranate seeds stem from sour varieties whose fruits cannot be eaten raw.
 The bark of the pomegranate tree may be used as a very strong laxans (purgative), but it has several serious side-effects.
 


 Basic Botanical Info of Pomegranate:
 Pomegranate:Origin&History:
 Pomegranate Constituents and Phytochemicals:
 Pomegranate Food Value and Uses:
 Other Uses of Pomegranate:
 Pomegranate Medicinal Action and Uses:
 Suggestions and Administration of Pomegranate:
 Pomegranate and Its Modern Research Update:
 Safety and Toxicity Study:


   Pomegranate:Origin&History:

 The Latin name of the tree was Malus punica, or Punicum Malum, the Lybian or Carthaginian apple; while the name of granatum was bestowed on account of its many seeds. Having no close relations, the tree has been placed by various authorities in different orders, some giving it an order of its own, Granateae.
 Central Asia, probably Persia. Now cultivated in Western and Central Asia, Mediterranean countries and Northern India.
 Pomegranate is a very popular fruit all over the Middle East. Though it can't be proven definitely, the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge" mentioned in the biblical history of creation most probably was meant to be a pomegranate,though most Westerners would hardly believe it, it is nowhere said to be an apple! There is also a parallel in Greek mythology, where the earth goddess Demeter lost her daughter Persephone to the underworld god Hades because of one single pomegranate grain the daughter had accepted.
 In the ongoing quest to find new supplements to help us lead longer, healthier lives, science often returns to things that have been used regularly for thousands of years. A case in point is the pomegranate, whose yellowish-pink, seedy fruit has been a staple of Asian diets since ancient times.
 Appropriately, in ancient Greek myth, the pomegranate represents life and regeneration. Its herbal use dates back more than 3,000 years, but contemporary science has rediscovered the pomegranate's effectiveness in preventing a variety of potentially deadly diseases.
 Dozens of recent studies reveal the pomegranate's surprising array of benefits. Pomegranates contain powerful antioxidants that appear to inhibit the onset of atherosclerosis, reduce the risk of heart disease, and mediate high blood pressure. Pomegranate extract also has demonstrated anticarcinogenic properties that are effective in suppressing a variety of cancers, including skin, breast, and colon cancers. The pomegranate has even shown effectiveness in alleviating depression in a mouse model of menopause.
 The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a hardy, long-lived subtropical shrub originating in semi-arid regions of Asia.3 It has been cultivated and naturalized over the whole of the Mediter-ranean region since ancient times. Pomegranates are mentioned in Egyptian papyrus scrolls dating back to 1550 BC, and pomegranate branches form part of the decorative motif on the pillars of King Solomon's temple.
 

  Etymology:

 The name "pomegranate" is of ancient origin. In classical Latin, the fruit was known either as malum punicum or malum granatum. In these names, malum means "apple", granatum derives from granum "grain" and means "(multi)grained" (alluding to the many seed grains). The adjective punicus properly refers to Phoenicia in Asia Minor, but was in Latin more frequently used with respect to Carthage, a Phoenician colony in Northern Africa (also Rome's only source of Silphion); the Romans suspected pomegranate to be of African origin. The botanical genus name Punica is the feminine form of that adjective, as is appropriate for a fruit-bearing tree.
 Names of pomegranate in contemporary West and Central European tongues are adaptations malum granatum, where the second part is retained whereas the first one usually gets translated, modified or omitted: Examples are German Granatapfel (from Apfel "apple") and Italian melograno (mela "apple", derived from Latin malum). The English name pomegranate has a similar structure, but contains Latin pomum "fruit, apple" (French pomme "apple") instead of malum; the Old English term is cornappla "grain-apple". In some Slavonic languages, the "apple",element is dropped completely, e.g., Russian granat.
 In many European languages, the weapon shell has names similar to granate. These derive from the same Latin word granum "grain": The reference is to the many fragments resulting from the detonation of a shell. Remarkably, also in Hebrew the word rimon may mean both "pomegranate fruit" and "shell".
 Some of the Indian names of pomegranate contain an element "sweet" derived from the Indo-European root MEDHU: Sanskrit madhubija and Tamil madulam. See bear's garlic and licorice for details.
 


   Pomegranate Constituents and Phytochemicals:

 The chief constituent of the bark (about 22 per cent) is called punicotannic acid. It also contains gallic acid, mannite, and four alkaloids, Pelletierine, Methyl-Pelletierine, Pseudo-Pelletierine, and IsoPelletierine.
 The liquid pelletierine boils at 125 degrees C., and is soluble in water, alcohol, ether and chloroform.
 The drug probably deteriorates with age.
 The rind contains tannic acid, sugar and gum.
 Pelletierine Tannate is a mixture of the tannates of the alkaloids obtained from the bark of the root and stem, and represents the taenicidal properties.
 

  Chemical Composition of Granati fructus cortex and Granati radicis cortex:

 Granati Fructus Cortex. The rind of the fruit (Granati fructus cortex), when dry, is brown externally, yellow within, about a line in thickness, smooth or finely tuberculated, hard, dry, brittle, in irregular fragments, inodorous, and of a very astringent, somewhat bitter taste. Its infusion gives an abundant, dark-bluish precipitate with the salts of iron. Analysis showed 18.8 per cent of tannin, 17.1 of mucilage, 10.8 of extractive matter, 30 of lignin, a trace of resin, and 29.9 of moisture.

 Granati Radicis Cortex. The bark of the root (Granati radicis cortex) is described by the U. S. P. as follows. "In thin quills or fragments, from 5 to 10 Cm. (2 to 4 inches) long, and from 1 to 3 Mm. (1/25 to 1/8 inch) thick; outer surface yellowish-gray, somewhat warty, or longitudinally and reticulately ridged; the stem-bark often partly covered with blackish lichens, the thicker pieces of the root-bark more or less scaly externally; inner surface smooth, finely striate, grayish-yellow; fracture short, granular, greenish-yellow; indistinctly radiate; inodorous; taste astringent, very slightly bitter"(U. S. P.).

 The bitterness of the bark is nearly lost by drying. When chewed, it tinges the saliva yellow. Its infusion yields a deep-blue precipitate with the salts of iron, a yellowish-white one with a solution of gelatin, a grayish-yellow with con rosive sublimate, and caustic potash or ammonia colors it purple. Paper which has been colored yellow by the moistened inner face of the bark, changes to blue by the action of sulphate of iron, and to a delicate rose color, which is evanescent, by nitric acid. These changes do not occur with the bark of barberry, or of boxroot, which are sometimes fraudulently mixed with it; the box bark is nearly white, very bitter, but not astringent, and its infusion is not precipitated by salts of iron (Guibourt-Planchon, Hist. des Drogues Simples, 1876, Vol. III, p. 280). The barberry bark likewise very much resembles the pomegranate, but is very bitter and not astringent, and is not affected by the salts of iron, solution of isinglass, corrosive sublimate, or caustic potash The ligneous part of pomegranate root is inert, and should, therefore, be always separated from the bark.

 Pomegranate bark contains about 20 per cent of tannin, which was believed by Rembold (1867) to consist of two astringent principles, one being gallotannic acid, the other punicotannic acid (C₂₀H₁₆O₁₃), peculiar to this bark. Diluted sulphuric acid hydrolyzed it into sugar and ellagic acid (C₁₄H₈O₉) (Fl¨¹ckiger, Pharmacognosie, 1891). The presence of gallic acid and mannit has been observed by various authors (Jahresb. der Pharm., 1867, p. 139). The bark leaves from 10.5 to 16.5 per cent of ash. It also contains a yellow coloring matter (see above). The anthelmintic properties of pomegranate bark are due to the presence of several (4) alkaloids, discovered by Tanret in 1878 and 1880 (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1880, p. 416), and to which he gave the collective name pelletierine, in honor of the celebrated French chemist Pelletier (1788-1842). C. J. Bender (1885) proposes the more euphonic name punicine. By mixing the powdered bark with milk of lime, exhausting with water, shaking with chloroform, and abstracting this solution with diluted acid, a solution of the 4 alkaloids is obtained. From this solution sodium bicarbonate liberates methylpelletierine and pseudopelletierine, which are removed by chloroform; the addition of caustic potash then gets free pelletierine and isopelletierine.

 Pelletierine (C₁₆H₃₀N₂O₂) is a colorless liquid, of specific gravity 0.988, rapidly absorbs oxygen, and resinifies. It boils at 195 deg C. (383 deg F.), is soluble in 20 parts of cold water, and mixes in all proportions with ether, alcohol, and chloroform. Its salts are crystallizable, but give off the base upon heating either dry or in solution. Its sulphate is laevo-rotatory. Isopelletierine (C₁₆H₃₀N₂O₂) is a liquid optically inactive, forming salts with acids. Density, solubilities, and boiling point are the same as with its preceding isomer. Its sulphate is deliquescent and optically inactive. Methylpelletierine (C₁₈H₃₄N₂O₂) is a liquid whose boiling point is 215 deg C. (419 deg F.). Its hydrochlorate is dextrogyre. The alkaloid dissolves in 25 times its weight of water at 12 deg C. (53.6 deg F.), and is soluble in alcohol, ether, and chloroform. Pseudopelletierine (C₁₈H₃₀N₂O₂) is a crystalline body, fusing at 46 deg C. (114.8 deg F.), is optically inactive, soluble in water, alcohol, ether, and chloroform. The chemistry of this base (called also granatonin) was investigated more recently by Ciamician and Silber (see Jahresb. der Pharm., 1893, p. 532, and 1894, p. 526).

 Tanret recommended the tannate of pelletierine as the most efficient form of application. The bark of the stem contains principally pelletierine, while in the root-bark methylpelletierine predominates (Fl¨¹ckiger, 1891). As to the yield in total alkaloids, W. Stoeder (1894) obtained from Java root-bark from 1.29 to 1.86 per cent of hydrochlorates of alkaloids, the white-flowering variety yielding the most alkaloid. In 1890 (Jahresb. der Pharm.), the same author had obtained a yield as high as 3.75 per cent of hydrochlorates from the white-flowering variety. On the other hand, E. Aweng (ibid., 1890), observed that the alkaloid may entirely disappear from the commercial bark upon storing.


   Pomegranate Food Value and Uses:

 For enjoying out-of-hand or at the table, the fruit is deeply scored several times vertically and then broken apart; then the clusters of juice sacs can be lifted out of the rind and eaten. Italians and other pomegranate fanciers consider this not a laborious handicap but a social, family or group activity, prolonging the pleasure of dining.
 In some countries, such as Iran, the juice is a very popular beverage. Most simply, the juice sacs are removed from the fruit and put through a basket press. Otherwise, the fruits are quartered and crushed, or the whole fruits may be pressed and the juice strained out. In Iran, the cut-open fruits may be stomped by a person wearing special shoes in a clay tub and the juice runs through outlets into clay troughs. Hydraulic extraction of juice should be at a pressure of less than 100 psi to avoid undue yield of tannin. The juice from crushed whole fruits contains excess tannin from the rind (as much as .175%) and this is precipitated out by a gelatin process. After filtering, the juice may be preserved by adding sodium benzoate or it may be pasteurized for 30 minutes, allowed to settle for 2 days, then strained and bottled. For beverage purposes, it is usually sweetened. Housewives in South Carolina make pomegranate jelly by adding 7 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 bottle of liquid pectin for every 4 cups of juice. In Saudi Arabia, the juice sacs may be frozen intact or the extracted juice may be concentrated and frozen, for future use. Pomegranate juice is widely made into grenadine for use in mixed drinks. In the Asiatic countries it may be made into a thick sirup for use as a sauce. It is also often converted into wine.
 In the home kitchen, the juice can be easily extracted by reaming the halved fruits on an ordinary orange-juice squeezer.
 In south China, a major use of the wild fruits is for the preparation of "anardana",the juice sacs being dried in the sun for 10 to 15 days and then sold as a spice.