ABSTRACT
The commercial potential and economic impact of pomegranates is enormous considering the different ways in which the fruit may be utilized. Consumption of pomegranates in the form of fresh fruit is very popular in various parts of the world, especially in Eastern and Middle Eastern countries where it is cultivated commercially in large quantities. Other commercial pomegranate products include jams, jellies, and wines. However, pomegranates are also popularly consumed as pomegranate juice (PJ). In the commercial juicing industry, large amounts of bioactive polyphenols contained in the fruit peel and membrane, consisting predominantly of punicalagin and its isomers, are extracted into PJ along with numerous other phytochemicals found in other parts of the fruit, such as its arils and seeds. Punicalagin
has been shown to be the major contributor to the potent antioxidant activities of PJ. It is noteworthy that punicalagin is present in commercial PJ whereas consumption of the edible fruit part, namely the arils, would not yield this potentially healthy phytochemical.
