Pomegranate is a Middle Eastern fruit with culinary and medicinal uses. Its seeds are used in various dishes, and it is respected for its antioxidant and antiviral properties. However, further research is needed to verify claims about its effectiveness in fighting arthritis, heart disease, and cancer. The fruit has been consumed for centuries, and its popularity has spread to other regions of the world.
Pomegranate is a Middle Eastern fruit with a culinary twist, as its sweet and sour seeds are delicious on their own or in a medley of other complementary ingredients. It is also respected by established medical institutions for several health restoring qualities. That doesn’t mean that every claim by herbalists and online sellers has been fully verified. Although pomegranate’s antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antioxidant uses were largely quantified in 2011, other claims about its effectiveness in fighting arthritis, heart disease, and cancer appear to need further study.
The most original and obvious uses of pomegranate are its tender seeds, which fill a cherry-red cavity as fat as an orange. It takes a bit of foresight to open a pomegranate without damaging the tender, fleshy seeds inside. A typical method is to cut the crown in half, then pull the fruit all the way out. The process repeats on both resulting halves, which provides the easiest access to separate the white membranes of the fruit from the copious seeds. If done in water, the seeds will fall to the bottom and the membrane will rise to the top.
The seeds resemble watermelon seeds, only these explode in your mouth with tangy sweetness. In addition to eating them as is, cooks regularly use them in fruit salads or to add a sweet and sour element to a savory salad. Other common uses of pomegranate seeds in foods are jam, molasses, salsa, yogurt, and baked sweets or desserts. Fruit juice is also regularly used in specialty cocktails or treats such as pomegranate granita, an Italian ice made with just juice, sugar, and water.
Anecdotal evidence of pomegranate’s medicinal uses has only solidified its reputation over the centuries. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, pomegranate juice’s antioxidant, antivirus, and antibacterial abilities are widely respected. Herbal remedies may involve eating the seeds or rind, as well as consuming the juice or an extract of the roots and bark. This supplementation continues as research – in vitro or in vivo – begins to show pomegranate’s potential value in fighting heart disease, slowing the onset of cancer and blocking the production of the enzyme responsible for arthritis.
Officially classified as Punica granatum, the pomegranate tree is one of the few fruit-bearing members of the flowering plant family Lythraceae. Its fruit has been consumed by Middle Eastern cultures since recorded history began – or possibly even earlier. Biologists and archaeologists point to the people of northern India and Iran as the first to investigate the many uses of the pomegranate. Its popularity spread to drier, subtropical regions of the Mediterranean and Asia, eventually arriving in North America from Spain in the late 18th century.
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