Pomegranate Peptide

The history and legend of pomegranate

Pomegranate is among the few fruits planted earliest by human. According to historical record, the earliest pomegranate tree was planted in 3000 B.C or 4000 B.C.

Even though pomegranate existed on earth wildly before human cultivation culture, it is still one of the five major crops planted by human at home. Other than pomegranate, the other 4 crops are olive tree, grape tree, fig and jujube tree. The earliest place of origin of pomegranate is in North Iran or Turkey. However, archeologists proved that the earliest pomegranate was found in Jericho, thereafter at Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Historical records show that this vivid and tasty fruit symbolizes health, high productivity and new life. Some cultures even believe that pomegranate carries strong and mysterious curative effects. Of course, it also has practical aspects, such as to be used as dyes or ornaments.

The attractive appearances of mysterious medical curative ingredients of pomegranate have become the source of inspiration of numerous fables, epic poems and works of art. It can be found in the creations of Raffaello Sanzio, Paul Cezanne, Homer and William Shakesphere.

The Forever Young Princess of Spain

Pomegranate is a popular fruit among the people and there is a beautiful legend of pomegranate in Spain.

More than 2000 years ago, the princess of Spain fell in love with a peasant. The king objected to this relationship and banished the peasant to a faraway place. The princess was sad with broken heart and she would cry in the garden where she had met the peasant, in the hope the peasant would return one day. There was a pomegranate tree beside the pound and because the princess refused to eat, she only took pomegranates.

The princess did this more for more than ten years and the king finally allowed the peasant to return. When the peasant who was now middle-aged returned, he discovered the princess looked as beautiful as she was more than ten years ago. It was later discovered that the princes been eating pomegranates everyday and the anti-oxidant in the pomegranates what made her looked young.

It is because of this that the pomegranate flower becomes the national flower of Spain the memory of the princess and trees are planted throughout the country. The red pomegranate flowers which bloom bring happiness, youth, and vitality to the whole population.

Pomegranate in the encyclopedia

Pomegranate is a kind of bush with thorns; it belongs to the family of Punicaceae. It originated from the subtropical zone and was transplanted to the Mediterranean areas long time ago.

Since then, pomegranates have been used as ornaments and people love to taste the fruit. Pomegranate has the size of an apple, there are many seeds inside the fruit and the peel is dark red in colour. People usually eat fresh pomegranate fruit or make pomegranate syrup for drinking purpose. Pomegranate syrup (sometimes made of currant) is the seasoning for wine, cocktail, soft drink, cake, etc. The astringent nature of its pericarp/peel and bark has been used for medicinal and insect repelling purposes for thousands of years.

General effects of Pomegranate

Pomegranates contain organic acids, vitamins C and B, proteins, fats, calcium, phosphorous and potassium. When used in medical formula, sour pomegranate is capable of stopping bleeding, acting as an astringent possesses inhibitory effects on micro-organisms. The punicine in the peel of pomegranate eliminates parasites and treats stones in the kidneys and diabetes. The amino acids contain in pomegranates are essential to the human body and they include glutamic acid and aspartic acid. Potassium is the main inorganic content in pomegranates and it is an essential element for sustenance of life. In addition, there are various vitamins and other potent contents in the pomegranates including sterol, hormones and alkaloids.

From analysis, each 100g of fresh pomegranate juice contains 79g of water, more than 17g of carbohydrates, 2.5g of fibre, 0.6-1.5g of proteins, 0.6-1.6g of fats, 0.8g of ashes, 11-13mg of calcium, 11-16mg of phosphorous, 0.6-1.6g of iron and more than 11mg of vitamin C.

The modern economical benefits of pomegranates

In North America, pomegranates are planted in California and the southern parts of Arizona and this extends to the tropical areas. Reports show that pomegranate has now become a popular seasoning for mixed drinks, ice cream, canned drink etc. During the meeting between President Bush of the United States of America and Preside Hamid Karzai of Republic of Afghanistan in May 2005, President Bush suggested to plan pomegranate instead of poppy. President Bush might be right because Afghanistani may discover that pomegranate has more economical values than poppy.

Contribution of pomegranate on health of mankind

Free radical which attacks macromolecules causing damage of tissue cells is the root cause of aging. What is the free radical in terms of the chemical point of view? It is the molecule that loses part of its important structure. In order to main its balance, it will “snatch” an electron from surrounding molecules by all mans, or discard the unpaired electron. This process will lead to “disintegration” of other molecules. Cells, protein, lipid and DNA invaded by free radicals will sustain deformation and corrosion to various extents.

If lipid is the target of attack by free radicals, a series of destructive chemical reactions will be triggered that cause damage to the cell membrane leading to lysis of cells. If protein is the target of attack by free radicals, protein functions will be destroyed. If free radical meets with DNA, it will cause abnormal mutation of these substances, damage to genetic code and irregular cell division. Long term exposure of the body to interference and damage by free radicals will cause diseases and premature aging.

How could the harm of free radicals be prevented? The answer is anti-oxidant. Antioxidant, as the name implies, is able to inhibit oxidation. It is just like a protector which always alleviates attack of free radicals before they do harm on your body (to keep them in balance). In our body, some nutrients such as-carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium also play their role as antioxidant to maintain balance of the body. However, factors such as stress, aging and environmental pollution like water pollution, cigarette smoking and so on will increase free radicals in the body leading to imbalance phenomenon. Free radicals attack healthy deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in human body and bring changes in accordance with aging for instance cancers, heart diseases and stroke.

A research done by laboratory of food engineering and biotechnology of Technion-Isral Institute of Technology indicates that fermented juice and cold pressed seed oil compounds of seeds soil of pomegranate contain antioxidant which is similar to that dibutyl hydroxyl and green tea, with its content far exceeds that of wine.

Apart from this, scientific researchers have also found the following advantages of pomegranate:-

A pomegranate can provide 40% of adult’s daily requirement of vitamin C, it is also rich in folic acid, vitamin A and E.

Cancer: High content of flavonoid compounds (an oxidant) in the pomegranate can effectively alleviate carcinogenic free radicals. This fruit is helpful in fighting against breast cancer and skin cancer; meanwhile American scientists also discovered that pomegranate juice can delay growth of prostrate cancer cells in experimental mice.

Heart Disease: Late researches indicate that daily drinking of glass of pomegranate juice ca improve blood supply to the heart (at least increased by 1/3). Antioxidant of this fruit is able to prevent elevation of bad cholesterol (LDL) and arterial occlusion, thus reducing heart disease and stroke. While another research states that frequent consumption of pomegranate juice can reduce pathological change of atherosclerosis and thus preventing arterial narrowing or abnormality of the heart.

Osteoarthritis: Pomegranate extract is able to prevent onset of osteoarthritis. American scientists use pomegranate extract to treat cartilage damaged by osteoarthritis and they found that I can inhibit increase in destructive enzyme.

Fetus: An experiment done by Washington University School Medicine in St. Louis, the United States on mice, recommended pregnant mothers to drink pomegranate juice to reduce risk of fetal brain damage due to hypoxia and minimize the amount of bleeding.

Skin Cancer: Ingredient for treatment of skin cancer might be obtained in pomegranate extract. “This is the prominent evidence for resistance against skin tumor that we obtained from pomegranate extract for the first time”, as disclosed by Dr Farrkuh Afaq from University of Wisconsin.

Skin Repair: Pathology Department of Michigan University in the United States found that pomegranate has two major functions in skin repair, by which pomegranate extract (extracted from peel) promotes regeneration of dermis, whereas seed oil of pomegranate promotes regeneration of epidermis.