# Pomegranate (Punica granatum)

**Malum punicum*, *granatum**

**Known today as.** *Punica granatum*: fruit, rind, flowers, and root bark.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

The juice cooling and binding; the rind and flowers astringent, for fluxes; the root bark against worms.

## What does modern science say?

The root bark contains pelletierine, isolated in 1878, which does expel tapeworms, and is toxic.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **punicalagin**: 
- **ellagic acid**: 
- **pelletierine**: in 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.

**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.

## 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.

## 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*.
- Dioscorides, *De materia medica*.
- Reform Judaism, “613 Mitzvot, 613 Seeds.”
- Stowe, C. B. (2011). “The effects of pomegranate juice consumption on blood pressure and cardiovascular health.” *Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice* 17.

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*Pomegranate.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/pomegranate

Historical description, not medical advice.