The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

We wish you peace and health!

Pomegranate

Scientific Names

Pomegranate

  • Punica granatum L.
  • Punicaceae
  • Lythraceae
  • Pomegranate family

Common Names

  • An-shih-liu (Chinese name)
  • Dadima (Sanskrit name)

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Parts Usually Used

Modern: Seeds, fruit

Traditional: Seeds, fruit, rind of the fruit, rootbark
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Pomegranate

The pomegranate has slender, often spiny-tipped branches that bear opposite, oblong or oval-lanceolate, shiny leaves about 1-2 inches long. One to five large, red or orange-red flowers grow together on the tips of axillary shoots. The brownish-yellow to red fruit, about the size of an orange, is a thick-skinned, several-celled, many-seeded berry; each seed is surrounded by red, acid pulp. Fruit ripens in September and October. Fruit is juicy and edible.
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Where Found

Pomegranate

Grows wild as a shrub in its native southern Asia and in hot areas of the world. Under cultivation, it is trained to a tree of up to 20 feet, being grown in Asia, the Mediterranean region, South America, and the southern states of the United States. Grown in greenhouses in cooler climates.
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Medicinal Properties

Anthelmintic, alterative, astringent, hemostatic, laxative, refrigerant, vermifuge, stomachic, tonic
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Biochemical Information

20% tannin, inulin, mannitol, malic acid, calcium oxalate, pelletierrine, isoquercitrin, an alkaloid
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Legends, Myths and Stories

The Pomegranate, along with the peach and the citron, was one of China’s 3 blessed fruits. To the Chinese, it was a symbol of fecundity and a prosperous future. The many seeds represented numerous male offspring earning fame and glory.

People of the Near East and the Greeks and Romans associated the pomegranate with fecundity also. In Greece it was involved in the story of the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, and her daughter Persephone. When Hades, the god of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone, Zeus promised to retrieve her if Persephone had not eaten anything in the underworld. When it was discovered that she had eaten a few seeds of a pomegranate given to her by Hades, a compromise settlement was made: Persephone was allowed to stay with her mother 9 months of the year but was required to spend the remaining 3 with Hades. The story can be seen as an allegory representing the cycle of growth, decay, and regeneration of vegetation, the time in the underworld representing the resting period of the seed during the winter. The story of Persephone was reenacted every year at the temple of Demeter at Eleusis near Athens. In these rites, called the Eleusinian mysteries, the pomegranate was considered the mystic fruit. These ceremonies were the most important and impressive of all Greek religious celebrations and were later adopted by the Romans.

The pomegranate is compared to the joys of a beguiling lover in the Song of Solomon (4:3, 13; 6:11).
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Uses

A remedy for tapeworm, pinworm and roundworm since the time of ancient Greeks. It is high in tannin content; that makes the rind of the fruit an astringent for internal and external use; for skin problems, hiccoughs, dysentery, diarrhea, leucorrhea, blood purifier, as a gargle for throat and mouth irritation, ulcers, colitis, prolapse of rectum or vagina, hemorrhoids, conjunctivitis, anemia, chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis, and as a vaginal douche for leukorrhea.
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Nutrient Content

Pomegranate nutrients

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How Sold

Pomegranate fruit, juice
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Warning

Large doses of the rind can cause cramps, vomiting, and other unpleasant
effects.

Care should be taken, using this herb, if chronic constipation is a problem.

As with the other toxic anthelmintics, do not mix with alcohol, oil or fats.
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Resource Links

LiveStrong.com: Turmeric & Pomegranate

LiveStrong.com: Pomegranate for Psoriasis

LiveStrong.com: What Are the Benefits of Pomegranate & Black Currant Juice?

LiveStrong.com: Natural Methods for Lowering Triglycerides & Cholesterol

LiveStrong.com: Herbs to Fade Discoloration

University of Maryland Medical Center: Pomegranate

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: Pomegranate

MedLinePlus: Pomegranate

Drugs.com: More Medicinal Uses for Pomegranate

National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine: Pomegranate Extract May Be Helpful for Rheumatoid Arthritis

PubMed.gov: Pomegranate extract inhibits the proliferation and viability of MMTV-Wnt-1 mouse mammary cancer stem cells in vitro.

PubMed.gov: [Nutrition, dietary supplements and prostate cancer]

PubMed.gov: Broad spectrum antimutagenic activity of antioxidant active fraction of Punica granatum L. peel extracts.

PubMed.gov: Ellagitannins of the fruit rind of pomegranate (Punica granatum) antagonize in vitro the host inflammatory response mechanisms involved in the onset of malaria.

PubMed.gov: Characterization of a Potential Nutraceutical Ingredient: Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Seed Oil
Unsaponifiable Fraction

PubMed.gov: Extract of Punica granatum inhibits skin photoaging induced by UVB irradiation.

PubMed.gov: Comparison of antioxidant potency of commonly consumed polyphenol-rich beverages in the United States

PubMed.gov: Antifungal activity of extracts of some plants used in Brazilian traditional medicine against the pathogenic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.

PubMed.gov: In Vitro Effects of Pomegranate Juice and Pomegranate Polyphenols on Foodborne Viral Surrogates.

PubMed.gov: Innovations in natural ingredients and their use in skin care.

PubMed.gov: Pomegranate juice (PJ) consumption antioxidative properties on mouse macrophages, but not PJ beneficial effects on macrophage cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism, are mediated via PJ-induced stimulation of macrophage PON2.

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Bibliography

Buy It! The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

Buy It! Chinese Medicinal Herbs, compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973.

Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition

Buy It! Planetary Herbology, by Michael Tierra, C.A., N.D., O.M.D., Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. WI 53181., Copyright 1988, published 1992

Buy It! Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023

Buy It! The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine, by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988.

Buy It! The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book), edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. Emmaus, PA, 18049., 1974

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