Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

An attractive shrub or small tree, to 20 or 30 ft (6 or 10 m) high, the Pomegranate is much-branched, more or less spiny. An extremely long-lived species, some specimens at Versailles are known to have survived two centuries. The leaves are evergreen or deciduous, opposite or in whorls of 5 or 6, short-stemmed, oblong-lanceolate, 3/8 to 4 in (1-10 cm) long and leathery. Showy flowers are home on the branch tips singly or as many as 5 in a cluster. They are 1 1/4 in (3 cm) wide and characterized by the thick, tubular, red calyx having 5 to 8 fleshy, pointed sepals forming a vase from which emerge the 3 to 7 crinkled, red, white or variegated petals enclosing the numerous stamens. Nearly round, but crowned at the base by the prominent calyx, the fruit, 2 1/2 to 5 in (6.25-12.5 cm) wide, has a tough, leathery skin or rind, basically yellow more or less overlaid with light or deep pink or rich red. The interior is separated by membranous walls and white spongy tissue (rag) into compartments packed with transparent sacs filled with tart, flavorful, fleshy, juicy, red, pink or whitish pulp (technically the aril). In each sac, there is one white or red, angular, soft or hard seed. The seeds represent about 52% of the weight of the whole fruit.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)

The juice of wild Pomegranates yields citric acid and sodium citrate for pharmaceutical purposes. Pomegranate juice enters into preparations for treating dyspepsia and is considered beneficial in leprosy.
The bark of the stem and root contains several alkaloids such as isopelletierine which is active against tapeworms. Either a decoction of the bark, which is very bitter, or the safer, insoluble Pelletierine Tannate may be employed.
Overdoses are emetic and purgative, produce dilation of pupila, dimness of sight, muscular weakness and paralysis.
Because of their tannin content, extracts of the bark, leaves, immature fruit and fruit rind have been given as astringents to stop diarrhea, dysentery and hemorrhages.
Dried, pulverized flower buds are employed as a remedy for bronchitis.
In Mexico, a decoction of the flowers is gargled to relieve oral and throat inflammation. Leaves, seeds, roots and bark have displayed hypotensive, antispasmodic and anthelmintic activity in bioassay.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)

All parts of the tree have been utilized as sources of tannin for curing leather. The trunk bark contains 10 to 25% tannin and was formerly important in the production of Morocco leather. The root bark has a 28% tannin content, the leaves, 11%, and the fruit rind as much as 26%. The latter is a by-product of the "anardana" industry.
Both the rind and the flowers yield dyes for textiles. Ink can be made by steeping the leaves in vinegar.
In Japan, an insecticide is derived from the bark.
The pale-yellow wood is very hard and, while available only in small dimensions, is used for walking-sticks and in woodcrafts.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)

(Information for this species compiled and recorded by Camelia Cirnaru, NTBG Consultant.)

The Pomegranate tree is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region of Asia, Africa and Europe.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)

For enjoying out-of-hand or at the table, the fruit is deeply scored several times vertically and then broken apart. Then the clusters of juice sacs can be lifted out of the rind and eaten. Italians and other Pomegranate fanciers consider this not a laborious handicap but a social, family or group activity, prolonging the pleasure of dining.
In some countries, such as Iran, the juice is a very popular beverage. Most simply, the juice sacs are removed from the fruit and put through a basket press. Otherwise, the fruits are quartered and crushed, or the whole fruits may be pressed and the juice strained out.
In Iran, the cut-open fruits may be stomped by a person wearing special shoes in a clay tub and the juice runs through outlets into clay troughs. The juice from crushed whole fruits contains excess tannin from the rind (as much as .175%) and this is precipitated out by a gelatin process. After filtering, the juice may be preserved by adding sodium benzoate or it may be pasteurized for 30 minutes, allowed to settle for 2 days, then strained and bottled. For beverage purposes, it is usually sweetened. Housewives in South Carolina make Pomegranate jelly by adding 7 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 bottle of liquid pectin for every 4 cups of juice.
In Saudi Arabia, the juice sacs may be frozen intact or the extracted juice may be concentrated and frozen, for future use.
Pomegranate juice is widely made into grenadine for use in mixed drinks. In the Asiatic countries it may be made into a thick syrup for use as a sauce. It is also often converted into wine.
In the home kitchen, the juice can be easily extracted by reaming the halved fruits on an ordinary orange-juice squeezer.
In northern India, a major use of the wild fruits is for the preparation of "anardana", the juice sacs being dried in the sun for 10 to 15 days and then sold as a spice.
Grenadine, a reduced juice from fresh pomegranate seeds, is common in Northern India not only for desserts, but also to marinate meat, due to its content of proteolytic enzymes, which acts as a meat tenderizer. Pomegranate juice, either fresh or in the form of grenadine, is a common souring agent in Western Asia and may be used in the Turkish salad kýsýr made from precooked cracked wheat (bulgur), parsley and possibly raw vegetables.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)

The generic term, "Punica", was the Roman name for Carthage from whence the best pomegranates came to Italy. The fruit was used in many ways as it is today and was featured in Egyptian mythology and art, praised in the Old Testament of the Bible and in the Babylonian Talmud, and it was carried by desert caravans for the sake of its thirst-quenching juice. It traveled to central and southern India from Iran about the first century A.D. and was reported growing in Indonesia in 1416. It has been widely cultivated throughout India and drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa.
The most important growing regions are Egypt, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, India, Burma and Saudi Arabia. There are some commercial orchards in Israel on the coastal plain and in the Jordan Valley. The tree was introduced in California by Spanish settlers in 1769.
(Morton, J. 1987. Fruits of warm climates.)

We currently have 7 herbarium specimens for Punica granatum in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 006273 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1988
• 010564 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1991
• 041009 - collected by Liloa Dunn in 2003
• 042520 - collected by Steve Perlman in 2004
• 081791 - collected by David E. Brussell in 2008
• 064544 - collected by Tim Flynn in 2008
• S062798 - collected by Tim Flynn in 2008