The Power of Pomegranate: Unlocking its Health Benefits

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a perennial plant of the Punicaceae family that has been cultivated for centuries in Iran and the middle east, Currently, many countries from Africa, Asia, America, and Europe contribute to its global market currently valued at ~USD 25 billion. Pomegranate fruits of different geno/phenotypes (varietals) are increasingly demanded by health-conscious consumers who seek their nutritional/health benefits. Although many plant components (e.g. leaves, bark, flowers, young shoots, roots, fruit peel, seeds) have been used in folk medicine worldwide, in the personalized nutrition arena its fruit is recognized as a "naturally functional" food. The plethora of health benefits reported to date is directly attributed to quite an extensive list of bioactive phytochemicals, which are further bio transformed sometimes into more effective metabolites within the human body. As if this were enough, a strong body of evidence indicates the pomegranate industry generates a vast number of by-products, representing a value-added opportunity to expand and differentiate its market (e.g., sports nutrition) while consolidating its potential use for health promotion and specific disease-secondary prevention.

This special topic of Frontiers in Nutrition welcomes any state-of-the-art review articles (narrative/systematic/meta-analysis) and original research (experimental, controlled clinical) articles on the nutritional/functional value of the fruit and other parts of the pomegranate plant, its agro-industrial by-products, and novel fruit/nutraceutical formulations. Research supporting the physiological/biochemical mechanisms associated with one or more pomegranate bioactives' health benefits or those employing artificial intelligence-based platforms to unveil any potential bioactivity of a given pomegranate phytochemical is particularly welcome.