Pomegranate:Ancient Fruit of Life Yields Modern Promise.

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Pomegranate Constituents and Phytochemicals.

Pomegranate Extract Pomegranate Seed Extract Polyphenols Pomegranate Hull Extract Ellagic Acid INCI Name PUNICA GRANATUM EXTRACT EINECS ELINCS No 284-646-0 Ellagic acid 207-508-3 CAS 84961-57-9.Ellagic acid 476-66-4 Guava Extract photo picture image 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) (Fluckiger, 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 (Fluckiger, 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.

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citations1.Pomegranate:Ancient Fruit of Life Yields Modern Promise.Pomegranate Extract.

last edit date:11th,May.2009.