Pomegranate
Malum punicum, granatum
- Known today as
- Punica granatum: fruit, rind, flowers, and root bark.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- punicalagin, ellagic acid, pelletierine
- Earliest authority here
- The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Pomegranate: what was it used for?
The juice cooling and binding; the rind and flowers astringent, for fluxes; the root bark against worms.
Pomegranate: what does modern science say?
The root bark contains pelletierine, isolated in 1878, which does expel tapeworms, and is toxic.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- punicalagin ChEMBL
- ellagic acid ChEMBL
- pelletierine ChEMBLin the bark, against tapeworm
- Mechanism
- The ellagitannins are antioxidants whose claims for the heart and the prostate have not survived the trials; the bark’s pelletierine paralyses tapeworms, the old use.
- Toxic dose
- The juice raises the blood levels of some drugs by inhibiting CYP enzymes; the bark is toxic.
- Standing
- A food; the FDA and the FTC acted against the health claims of a juice maker in 2010.
- Stowe, C. B. (2011). “The effects of pomegranate juice consumption on blood pressure and cardiovascular health.” Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 17. Verified against its record · doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2010.09.004
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Pomegranate: what lore surrounds it?
Jewish tradition holds up the pomegranate at Rosh Hashanah as a symbol of the 613 commandments of the Torah, with a blessing traced to the Babylonian Talmud that the year’s good deeds be as many as its seeds. A 2006 count of 206 pomegranates from around the world found an average of exactly 613 seeds, though its author noted that breeding has likely pushed modern counts higher since.
Pomegranate: what did the older authorities say?
- The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
- Persephone eats the pomegranate seed in the underworld, and so must return there each year.
Sources
- Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Book, seen in reviews
- Dioscorides, De materia medica. Read in part · the text read
- Reform Judaism, “613 Mitzvot, 613 Seeds.” Book, seen in reviews
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 4 cited: 1 read in part, 1 verified against its record, 2 book, seen in reviews. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026
- Chicago
“Pomegranate.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pomegranate.
- MLA
“Pomegranate.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pomegranate. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Pomegranate. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pomegranate
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See Also
Sharing ellagic acid
Drawing on the same sources: Dioscorides
Nearby in the alphabet
The precious stones (emerald, jacinth, garnet, and topaz, as they were used in medicine) · Pomander (of ambergris, musk, civet, and spices, carried in a pierced case) · The prologue of John · Polypody of mercurialis, syrup of · Puffball (White balls that ripen into a cloud of brown spores) · Pokeweed (the American pokeweed) · Poison fire coral (finger-like fungus of Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia)
Historical description, not medical advice.