The pomegranate was recognized as an important fruit very early in human history dating back thousands of years ago. Since ancient times, pomegranate culture was developed along with human communities all over the world. Pomegranate provides tasty, healthy and aesthetic fruit and its importance in human diet is fully appreciated in recent years. The health promoting properties of pomegranate flowers, fruits and sprouting seedlings are now being extensively studied in many laboratories around the world revealing a wide spectrum of biological activities in human and animal cells. These, include among others, antioxidant activity, chemoprevention of cancer, protection against cardiovascular diseases and antimicrobial activities. In the following years it is expected that more and more important phytochemicals that are associated with the health therapeutic capabilities of pomegranate will be isolated and characterized from pomegranate. Unfortunately, most of the public and scientific interest in pomegranate is focused on its medicinal properties and much less effort was dedicated to study the biology of the pomegranate tree, its genetic variability and the relevance of the genetic and biochemical variability to the various medicinal activities displayed by pomegranates. In this chapter an attempt was made to focus on studies that demonstrated variability in the content of various phytochemicals among different pomegranate varieties and the relevance of these aspects to studies of the effect of pomegranate on human and animal health.

Part of the Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the World book series (MAPW, volume 2)