Berries offer lots of benefits in their crunchy seeds, which contain healthful essential fatty acids for the heart, brain, and skin and polyphenols in their pulp to fight free radicals and protect health. Today, I shall discuss pomegranate, a berry-like fruit, which is available several months of the year.
Pomegranate (Punica Granatum) is cultivated in Mediterranean countries and California. The fruit has an attractive appearance and peel, protecting scores of beautiful crimson gem-like berries called arils. Every juicy red aril carries one single seed in its center. The juice around the seed is contained by a fine translucent skin. The pomegranate comes in intense colors of red and exquisite tastes, ranging from very sour to very sweet. The juice is rich in precious polyphenols. When the fruit is of a good quality, it is juicy and sweet to eat or make into juice. The seeds are crunchy, but easy to chew and swallow. In between the tough outer red peel and the arils lies the white spongy pith, which comes with medicinal properties.
While the juice alone is not particularly rich in minerals and vitamins (only a trace, plus vitamin C and potassium), the chewy seeds provide an abundance of micronutrients, phytosterols, essential fatty acids, and fiber.
On the other hand, studies show that pomegranate juice offers highly-valued antioxidants by the name of punicalagins. The phytochemicals contain unusual active chemicals that fight disease. Punicalagins’ bioactivity in laboratory studies showed their anti-inflammatory effects. The juice also contains a combination of ellagitannins. In the digestive tract, ellagitannins are broken down into ellagic acid and taken up into the bloodstream. The latter phytocompound has the potency to promote health and reduce disease. Because of the juice’s abundance in ellagitannins (the highest among all fruits), scientific research is active to determine its effectiveness on inflammation, cancer, tumors, vascular disorders, ultraviolet rays on skin, certain type of bacteria, and malaria. In animal trials, the juice was found to lower hypertension, suppress infectious viruses, and work against oral bacteria and dental plaque.
Scores of scientific studies have been published on pomegranate and research on the juice is in progress and on the rise. The juice is not the only area of scrutiny, the seeds, rind, pith, leaf, flower, bark, and roots, which have been used in traditional remedies, are also arousing interest due to the bioactivity of their extracts. Juice, rind, and seed oil have shown potent properties on inflammation in lab tests. What is more interesting, they seem to suppress tumor cell activity, multiplication, and blood vessel growth.
More research is being effectuated in other areas of disease such as prostate gland hypertrophy, cancer, diabetes, cold and viral infections, and vascular disorders.
In human trials, pomegranate juice appeared to lower prostate-specific immune response (PSI) levels during radiation treatment of prostate cancer. Such response showed that the juice can be used to stabilize and possibly prevent the cancer. Several cancer research centers and universities in the United States are actively investigating pomegranate juice and extracts to counteract the disease.
A recent study in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry indicated that pomegranate juice promotes prostate health through ellagitannins, which can help suppress an active enzyme that provokes prostate cancer. It is recommended for males getting treated for the cancer or carrying the cancer gene.
Another research published in the journal of Cancer Prevention Research indicated that pomegranate consumption may deter the development of breast cancer. The phytocompounds ellagitannins seem to inhibit the action of the enzyme aromatase, which converts androgen to estrogen in the body. Excess estrogen can trigger the onset of breast cancer. The antioxidants in the fruit perform similar functions to those of aromatase-inhibitor drugs. Pomegranate appears to benefit patients with cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases as well.
Coming back to pomegranate pith, traditional Arabian medicine recommends the dried powdered pith as a treatment to reduce blood sugar levels. It appears to control sugar levels in diabetics.
Pomegranate is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an as a precious and prized fruit in paradise. In fact, most of the cited fruits (grape, date, ginger, pomegranate…) have been found to be of high nutritional value. And also the other foods (honey, dates, garlic, onion, olive and its oil, figs, lentils, beans) mentioned in the Holy Book have also shown, through scientific research, healing and health-balancing properties.
Pomegranate is a highly-valued fruit in certain regions of Saudi Arabia. It is grown in the cool mountainous region of Taif. The produce of the region is exceptional like none I have had. The spherical crimson arils are juicy and sweet with a delicious flavor. The seeds are gently crunchy and palatable. The juice is sometimes too sweet to have in big amounts. Pomegranate season begins in July and ends in October. The fruit is sold in crates at very high prices due to the strong demand for it. You can find good pomegranates coming from Yemen, Pakistan, and India most of the year. The Yemeni fruit is good for eating; the last two are good for juicing only, because the seeds are too tough to chew.
There is a way to opening a pomegranate without breaking up the arils and sprinkling your clothes with the red juice. The purple stains are difficult to remove because of the powerful polyphenols of the juice. Cut the rind lightly right across the center with a sharp knife. You should avoid cutting the arils with the knife. Hold the two sections of the fruit firmly in both hands and then split the fruit open in two halves. As long as the arils are intact, they will not get contaminated. Break the halves in smaller sections with peel and rind. You can serve the sections in chunks or separate the arils and then put them in a glass bowl with ice cubes on top and sprinkle them with a dash of rose water to add a refreshing flavor. However, good pomegranates do not need to be flavored.
Pomegranate is consumed as a fruit, juice, or garnish in salads, appetizers, and dishes. Lebanese and Turkish cooking use it frequently to garnish dishes and the syrup (dibse al-rumman) in cooking. The juice also comes bottled; it is found in supermarkets. The fruit and its juice are very refreshing during iftar time (breaking fast). Your body will enjoy the exceptional polyphenols!
Regular consumption of pomegranate may help prevent breast cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers from the City of Hope and published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
Researchers tested 10 different naturally occurring pomegranate compounds, all of them in the ellagitannin family of chemicals. They found that some of the ellagitannins significantly reduced the activity of the enzyme aromatase in the laboratory.
In the body, aromatase transforms the hormone androgen into the hormone estrogen. Because 75 percent of breast tumors contain estrogen receptors and use the hormone to fuel their growth, aromatase inhibitors are a popular form of treatment for slowing the growth of breast tumors in post-menopausal women.
Pharmaceutical aromatase inhibitors include the AstraZeneca drug Armidex, the Pfizer drug Aromasin and the Novartis drug Femara.
“We were surprised by our findings,” researcher Shiuan Chen said. “We previously found other fruits, such as grapes, to be capable of the inhibition of aromatase. But phytochemicals in pomegranates and in grapes are different.”
Of the 10 chemicals tested, urolithin B was the most effective at aromatase inhibition. Researchers offered two caveats to their findings, however. First of all, the body does not absorb ellagitannins into the blood very effectively from the digestive tract. Second of all, the researchers tested very high doses of the chemicals, much higher than those found in pomegranate. This suggests that an actual pomegranate-based cancer treatment may still be far in the future.
“We do not recommend people start taking this as a replacement for the [aromatase inhibitors],” Chen said. “[Pomegranate compounds] are not as potent as the real drugs so we think that the interest probably is more on the prevention end rather than in a therapeutic purpose.”
Pomegranate juice has been shown to be rich in a wide variety of antioxidants that are believed to reduce the risk of not only cancers, but also other chronic conditions such as Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.
