Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Physico-chemical Properties, Vitamin C Content, and Antimicrobial Properties of Pomegranate Fruit (Punica granatum L.)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Food and Bioprocess Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) fruit is widely used in the food and process industries due to its excellent nutritional and health value and as a raw material for the manufacture of secondary products such as jellies, dyes, and cosmetics. The objectives of this research were to determine the vitamin C content and antimicrobial properties of fresh and dried fractions of fruit peel and arils of locally grown and imported pomegranate in Oman. A significant variation in vitamin C content was found among the five varieties of pomegranate studied, ranging from 52.8 to 72.0 mg/100 g fresh weight (fw) for arils and 76.8 to 118.4 mg/100 g fw for peels. Irrespective of the variety of pomegranate, vitamin C content in the peel was significantly higher than the aril, with differences ranging from 24.4% to 97.0% depending on variety. Fruit fractions showed antimicrobial effects (inhibition zone) on Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa but not Escherichia coli. Sun drying of fruit peel significantly (p ≤ 0.05) enhanced vitamin C retention and antimicrobial effects in comparison with oven drying presumably due to lower rate of moisture removal associated with low temperature drying over longer duration in comparison with short-time high-temperature oven drying.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akiyama, H., Fujii, K., Yamasaki, O., Oono, T., & Iwatsuki, K. (2001). Antibacterial action of several tannins against Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 48, 487–491.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • AOAC (2000). Vitamins and other nutrients (Chapter 45). In Official methods of analysis (pp. 16–20, 17th ed.). Washington, DC: AOAC International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braga, L. C., Shupp, J. W., Cummings, C., Jett, M., Takahashi, J. A., Carmo, L. S., et al. (2005). Pomegranate extract inhibits Staphylococcus aureus growth and subsequent enterotoxin production. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 96, 335–339.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, M. M. (1999). Plant products as antimicrobial agents. Clinical Microbiological Review, 12, 564–582.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dumlu, M. U., & Gurkan, E. (2007). Elemental and nutritional analysis of Punica granatum from Turkey. Journal of Medicinal Food, 10(2), 392–395.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Erenturk, S., Gulaboglu, M. S., & Gultekin, S. (2005). The effects of cutting and drying medium on the vitamin C content of rosehip during drying. Journal of Food Engineering, 68, 513–518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fadavi, A., Barzegar, M., Azizi, M. H., & Bayat, M. (2005). Physicochemical composition of ten pomegranate cultivars (Punica granatum L.) grown in Iran. Food Science and Technology International, 11, 113–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FDA (2007). Approximate pH of foods and food products. Rockville, MD: US Food and Drug Administration www.cfsan.fda.gov. Accessed 20 October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geckil, H., Gencer, S., & Uckun, M. (2004). Vitreoscilla hemoglobin expressing Enterobacter aerogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa respond differently to carbon catabolite and oxygen repression for production of L-asparaginase, an enzyme used in cancer therapy. Enzyme and Microbial Technology, 35, 182–189.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gil, M. I., Tomas-Barberan, F. A., Hess-Pierse, B., Holcroft, D. M., & Kader, A. A. (2000). Antioxidant activity of pomegranate juice and its relationship with phenolic composition and processing. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 48, 4581–4589.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gracious, R. R., Selvasuramanian, S., & Jayasundar, S. (2001). Immunomodulatory activity of Punica granatum in rabbits. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 78, 85–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, C., Yang, J., Wei, J., Li, Y., Xu, J., & Jiang, Y. (2003). Antioxidant activities of peel and seed fractions of common fruits as determined by FRAP assay. Nutrition Research, 23, 1719–1792.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, A., Rahman, M., & Islam, S. (2007). Antibacterial, antifungal and cytotoxic activities of tuberous roots of amorphophallus campanulatus. Turkish Journal of Botany, 31, 167–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khodade, M. S., Wavhal, K. N., & Kale, P. N. (1990). Physico-chemical changes during the growth and development of pomegranate fruit. Indian Journal of Horticulture, 47, 21–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Loir, Y., Baron, F., & Gautier, M. (2003). Staphylococcus aureus and food poisoning. Genetics and Molecular Research, 2(1), 163–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Y., Guo, C., Yang, J., Wei, J., Xu, J., & Cheng, S. (2006). Evaluation of antioxidant properties of pomegranate peel extract in comparison with pomegranate pulp extract. Food Chemistry, 96, 254–260.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Longtin, R. (2003). The pomegranate: Nature’s power fruit? Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 95, 346–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, L., Chen, Y., & Chou, C. (2005). Antibacterial activity of propolis against Staphylococcus aureus. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 102, 213–220.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Madihassan, S. (1984). Outline of the beginning of alchemy and its antecedents. American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 12, 32–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martinez, J. J., Melgarejo, P., Hernandez, F., Salazar, D. M., & Martinez, R. (2006). Seed characterization of five new pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) varieties. Scientia Horticulturae, 110, 241–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morris, A., Barnett, A., & Burrows, O. (2004). Effect of processing on nutrient content of foods. Cajanus, 37(3), 160–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mothershaw, A. S., & Jaffer, T. (2004). Antimicrobial activity of foods with different physico-chemical characteristics. International Journal of Food Properties, 7(3), 629–638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Negi, P. S., & Jayaprakasha, G. K. (2003). Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Punica granatum extracts. Journal of Food Science, 68, 1473–1477.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Özkan, Y. (2005). Investigation on physical and chemical characteristics of some pomegranate genotypes (Punica granatum L.) of Tokat Province in Turkey. Asian Journal of Chemistry, 17(2), 939–942.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddy, M. K., Gupta, S. K., Jacob, M. R., Khan, S. I., & Ferrira, D. (2007). Antioxidant, antimalarial and antimicrobial activities of tannin-rich fractions, ellagitannins and phenolic acids from Punica granatum L. Planta Medicine, 73(5), 461–467.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkhosh, A., Zamani, Z., Fatahi, R., & Ebadi, A. (2006). RAPD markers reveal polymorphism among some Iranian pomegranate (Punica granatum L) genotypes. Scientia Horticulturae, 111, 24–29.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, R. P., Chidambara Murthy, K. N., & Jayaprakasha, G. K. (2002). Studies on the antioxidant activity of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) peel and seed extract using in vitro models. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50, 81–86.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • SPSS (2000). Statistical package for Social Sciences. SPSS for Windows, Version 11.5, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, C. M., Cole, M. B., Legan, D., Slade, L., Handeven, M. H., & Schaffiner, D. W. (2002). Staphylococcus aureus boundaries: Moving towards mechanistic predictive models based on solute-specific effects. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 68, 1864–1871.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Styrt, B., & Klempner, M. S. (1988). Effects of pH on killing Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli by constituents of the neutrophil phagolysosome. The Journal of Medical Microbiology, 25(2), 101–107.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sumner, M. D., Elliott-Eller, M., Weidner, G., Daubenmier, J. J., Chew, M. H., Marlin, R., et al. (2005). Effects of pomegranate juice consumption on myocardial perfusion in patients with coronary heart disease. Journal of Cardiology, 96, 810–814.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Timoumi, S., Mihoubi, D., & Zagrouba, F. (2007). Shrinkage, vitamin C degradation and aroma losses during infra-red drying of apple slices. LWT—Food Science and Technology, 40, 1648–1654.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vasconcelos, L. C. S., Sampaio, F. C., Sampaio, M. C. C., Pereira, M. S. V., Higino, J. S., & Peixoto, M. H. P. (2006). Minimum inhibitory concentration of adherence of Punica granatum Linn (pomegranate) gel against S. mutans, S. mitis and C. albicans. Brazilian Dental Journal, 17, 223–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vega-Galvez, A., Lemus-Mondaca, R., Bilbao-Sainz, C., Fito, P., & Andres, A. (2008). Effect of air drying temperature on the quality of rehydrated dried red bell pepper (var. Lamuyo). Journal of Food Engineering, 85, 42–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This study was carried out under His Majesty’s Strategic Research Trust Fund as part of the project (SR/AGR/BIOR/05/01) awarded to Dr L.U. Opara (Principal Investigator) on Postharvest Technology of Fresh Produce. The authors are grateful for this financial support. We would like to acknowledge the reviewers of this manuscript for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postharvest Technology Research Laboratory, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 34, Al-Khod 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

    Linus U. Opara & Yusra S. Al-Shuaibi

  2. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 34, Al-Khod 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

    Majeed R. Al-Ani

Authors
  1. Linus U. Opara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Majeed R. Al-Ani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yusra S. Al-Shuaibi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linus U. Opara.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Opara, L.U., Al-Ani, M.R. & Al-Shuaibi, Y.S. Physico-chemical Properties, Vitamin C Content, and Antimicrobial Properties of Pomegranate Fruit (Punica granatum L.). Food Bioprocess Technol 2, 315–321 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-008-0095-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-008-0095-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation