Pomegranate

Parts Usually Used

Modern: Seeds, fruit Traditional: Seeds, fruit, rind of the fruit, rootbark

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.

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.

Medicinal Properties

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

Biochemical Information

20% tannin, inulin, mannitol, malic acid, calcium oxalate, pelletierrine, isoquercitrin, an alkaloid

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).

Uses

Since the era of the ancient Greeks, herbalists employed this plant as a remedy for intestinal parasites such as tapeworms, pinworms, and roundworms. Due to the high tannin content of the fruit rind, historical practitioners valued it as an astringent for both internal and external applications. Traditional accounts recorded its use for skin conditions, hiccoughs, dysentery, diarrhea, anemia, colitis, hemorrhoids, and prolapse of the rectum or vagina.

Herbalists also administered preparations of the rind as a blood purifier, as a gargle to soothe mouth and throat irritation, as an eye wash for conjunctivitis, and as a douche for leukorrhea.

How Sold

Pomegranate fruit, juice

Bibliography

The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974. Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023 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.

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. , 1974