The pomegranate is one of the ancient yet more sought after fruit. The pomegranate, contrary to previous records citing that the pomegranate was considered native to the region of Iran and/or northern India.
The pomegranate plant is a fruit-bearing, small tree that is highly branched but can grow up to 10 m tall and survive in extreme conditions. The leaves have short stems and leathery surfaces; the flowers are flashy, from white to red in color.
Pomegranate fruit, more or less round in shape, 6.25–12.5 cm in diameter, has a course, leathery rind with a pink to deep red or indigo to fully red color. Pomegranate has some unusual varieties, for example, the black pomegranate.
Seed plus exterior tissues make up the arils that are transparent sacs full of flavorful, fleshy, juicy, pink, red or whitish pulp and separated by membranous walls and white tissue. Each aril usually contains only one seed that is white or red, soft or hard, representing approximately 52% of the weight of the whole fruit. Skin color of the rind does not necessarily match the color of the aril, indicating no correlation between the color of fruit skin and aril. Arils, the edible part of the fruit, contain around 80–85% juice and 15–20% seed and are mostly consumed fresh. The number of arils per fruit varies but may be as high as 1,300 per fruit Consumption trends.
The seeds are added to rice dishes and other grains, salads, and the juice is boiled down to make a sweet –sour molasses.
FOOD WITH POMEGRANATE:
Reduce heat to medium-high and add remaining 3 tablespoons oil to pot. Add onion, garlic, and thyme. Cook, scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon, until onion is softened, 5 minutes. Add flour and stir to coat. Whisk in pomegranate juice and wine and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Return ribs to pot, cover, and transfer to oven.
Bake until ribs are easily pierced with the tip of a paring knife, about 3 hours. With a slotted spoon, carefully transfer ribs to a large platter.
Strain liquid into a fat separator, let sit briefly, and return to pot, discarding fat (or, skim off fat with a spoon). Bring to a boil over medium-high and cook until reduced to a sauce-like consistency, 10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, season with salt and pepper, and pour over ribs. Top with pomegranate seeds.)
And so on… .
The demand for pomegranate fruit and its by-products is rising exponentially, especially in the Western world, owing to the growing awareness of the health-promoting benefits of pomegranate. Because of this trend, Iran and India are
becoming leaders of the pomegranate market, followed by China and Turkey the trend for either cultivation or consumption is increasing in many pomegranate-cultivating countries. These countries opt to process fruit to juice and juice concentrate, exporting the concentrate to the entire world since numerous different
juices, products, and functional beverages are formulated using juice concentrate.
Significance in human health Pomegranate fruit is highly appreciated for beneficial
health effects in the form of decreasing cardiovascular and other chronic diseases due to its high contents of organic acids, vitamins, polysaccharides, essential minerals and most importantly, antioxidants. The high antioxidant nature of
pomegranate fruit has played a major role in its increased consumption across developed countries, especially in the form of juice and other processed products.
Pomegranate juice has shown significant anti-atherosclerotic, anti-hypertensive, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects in human subjects and mouse models. The principal mechanisms of action of pomegranate juice may include the following: increased serum antioxidant capacity, decreased plasma lipids and lipid peroxidation, decreased oxidized-LDL uptake by macrophages, decreased intima media thickness, decreased atherosclerotic lesion areas, enhanced biological actions of nitric oxide, decreased inflammation, decreased angiotensin converting enzyme activity, and decreased systolic blood pressure, thereby causing an overall favorable effect on the progression of atherosclerosis and the subsequent potential development of Coronary heart disease. In comparison with commonly consumed fruit juices, green tea, and black tea, which have been shown to increase serum antioxidant capacity or decrease oxidative damage of biomolecules, 82–84 pomegranate juice exerts additional cardio protective benefits by decreasing or reversing the progression of ischemic lesion areas, as well as having a beneficial effect on intimal media thickness and systolic blood pressure. Also, the fact that pomegranate-ate juice supplementation produced significant effects inpatients on multiple medications is promising because it suggests pomegranate juice may be an effective source of adjunct phototherapy in patients at risk of heart disease who are following a heart-healthy diet. Thus, based on limited, but promising human data, it appears that pomegranate juice supplementation in the form of at least one to two cups a day may exert Benicia effects in subjects with type 2 diabetes and CVD, and boost antioxidant defense mechanisms in healthy volunteers. Pomegranate polyphenol extracts, up to 1400 mg appear to be safe, though most of the clinical trials that have shown significant beneficial effects with pomegranate-ate juice have been made commercially or carefully extracted under controlled laboratory settings by the researchers. Pomegranate juice may be considered the most heart-healthy fruit juice and awaits additional clinical research to further strengthen support for its unique cardio protective effects.