Contents:
Common Names | Parts Usually Used | Plant(s) & Culture | Where Found | Medicinal Properties | Biochemical Information
Legends, Myths and Stories | Uses | Nutrient Content | How Sold | Warning | Resource Links | Bibliography
Scientific Names
- Punica granatum L.
- Punicaceae
- Lythraceae
- Pomegranate family
Common Names
- An-shih-liu (Chinese name)
- Dadima (Sanskrit name)
Parts Usually Used
Modern: Seeds, fruit
Traditional: Seeds, fruit, rind of the fruit, rootbark
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture
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
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
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
Drugs.com: More Medicinal Uses for Pomegranate
PubMed.gov: [Nutrition, dietary supplements and prostate cancer]
PubMed.gov: Extract of Punica granatum inhibits skin photoaging induced by UVB irradiation.
PubMed.gov: Innovations in natural ingredients and their use in skin care.
Bibliography
The Herb Book
Chinese Medicinal Herbs
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
Planetary Herbology
Webster’s New World Dictionary
The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine
The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book)
