NATURAL PRODUCTS FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND/OR TREATMENT.

By: Ehsan Sairally

Pomegranate juice and its effects on prostate cancer, heart disease and inflammatory diseases.

Pomegranates have been used for a variety of medicinal purposes by ancient cultures. Ancient Egyptians doctors recorded their knowledge of the therapeutic value of pomegranates on pieces of papyri, according to researchers at the University of Manchester, UK. The pomegranate fruit has been mentioned in Islamic, Christian and Judaic scriptures.

And it is He who produces gardens trellised and un-trellised, and date-palms, and crops of different shapes and taste (their fruits and their seeds) and olives, and pomegranates similar (in kind) and different (in taste). Eat of their fruits when they ripen, but pay the due thereof on the day of its harvest, and waste not by extravagance. Verily, He likes not those who waste by extravagance.
Qur’an 6: 141

Modern research indicates pomegranates (Rumman in Arabic) provide nutrients that may fight inflammation, prostate cancer and promote a healthy cardiovascular system.

Pomegranate is a large berry with a leathery pericarp filled with numerous edible, red ruby-like arils (seeds encased by a juicy pulp), surrounded by membranous pith. Therefore, the whole pomegranate fruit can be divided into: a) seeds (~3% of the fruit weight, and themselves containing about 20% oil), b) juice (~30% of the fruit weight) and c) the peels and interior network of membranous piths. (Reference: EP Lansky and RA Newman, “Pomegranate and Its Potential for Prevention and Treatment of Inflammation and Cancer” Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol 109, no 2 (2006) 177-206.

Pomegranate juice can be obtained by squeezing the whole fruit. Modern research indicates that pressed pomegranates have high antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are important because they interact with human genes that influence many health conditions; but this is poorly understood.

The impact of pomegranates on heart health has been recently reviewed. (Reference: B Fuhrman and M Aviram, “Protection against Cardiovascular Diseases,” Chapter 15, p63-89, In: Pomegranates: Ancient Roots Modern Medicine.

There is tremendous preclinical work indicating the chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic potential of pomegranates on prostate cancer. (Reference: NP Seeram, RN Schulman, D Heber (Eds), Pomegranates: Ancient Roots Modern Medicine, CRC Press & Taylor and Francis Group (Boca Raton, FL), Medicinal & Aromatic Plant Series, 2006.

Other benefits to the stomach, throat, lungs and bronchi have been attributed to this ancient fruit which grows in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries, Asia (China and India), Australia, in the USA (mostly in California and Florida), Mexico and South America. Ibn Abbas, God bless his soul, narrated that God’s messenger said “There is not a pomegranate of yours that is not cross-fertilized by a seed of a pomegranate from paradise.”