I walk by a pomegranate bush in a residential front yard. It makes a colorful display, the pomegranates looking succulent and delicious. This is only the second time I have seen pomegranates growing in a front yard. I suspect there are more pomegranate bushes in back yards.
I have had pomegranate seeds in salads and have drunk pomegranate juice. According to Howard G. Smith, M.D.’s April 15, 2017 article “Here are all the health benefits you get from drinking pomegranate juice” in Business Insider, pomegranate juice is rich in antioxidant polyphenols, which can reverse atherosclerosis as well as vascular inflammation, and thereby lower blood pressure. But it has other anti-inflammatory effects, and most of the effects can occur quickly, after drinking as little as five ounces a day for only two weeks.
History
The pomegranate is native to a region from modern-day Iran to northern India. Pomegranates have been cultivated throughout the Middle East, South Asia and Mediterranean region for several millennia, and it is also cultivated in the Central Valley of California and in Arizona. Pomegranates may have been domesticated as early as the fifth millennium B.C., as they were one of the first fruit trees to be domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean region.
Carbonized outermost layer of the fruit has been identified in early Bronze Age levels of Tell es-Sultan or ancient Jericho in the West Bank, as well as late Bronze Age levels of Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus and Tiryns. A large, dry pomegranate was found in the tomb of Diehuty, the butler of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt; Mesopotamian cuneiform records mention pomegranates from the mid-third millennium B.C. onwards. Waterlogged pomegranate remains have been identified at the circa 14th century B.C. Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey. Other goods on the ship include perfume, ivory and gold jewelry, suggesting that pomegranates at this time may have been considered a luxury good. Other archaeological finds of pomegranate remains from the late Bronze Age have been found primarily in elite residences, supporting this inference.
It is also extensively grown in southern China and in Southeast Asia, whether originally spread along the route of the Silk Road or brought by sea traders. Kandahar is famous in Afghanistan for its high-quality pomegranates.
Although not native to Korea or Japan, the pomegranate is widely grown there and many cultivars have been developed. It is widely used for bonsai because of its flowers and for the unusual twisted bark the older specimens can attain. The term "balaustine" is also used for a pomegranate-red color.
Spanish colonists later introduced the fruit to the Caribbean and Spanish America, but in the English colonies, it was less at home: "Don't use the pomegranate inhospitably, a stranger that has come so far to pay his respects to thee," the English Quaker Peter Collinson wrote to the botanizing John Bartram in Philadelphia, 1762. "Plant it against the side of thy house, nail it close to the wall. In this manner, it thrives wonderfully with us, and flowers beautifully, and bears fruit this hot year. I have twenty-four on one tree... Doctor Fothergill says, of all trees, this is most salutiferous to mankind."
The pomegranate had been introduced as an exotic to England the previous century, by John Tradescant the Elder, but the disappointment that it did not set fruit there led to its repeated introduction to the American colonies, even New England. It succeeded in the South: Bartram received a barrel of pomegranates and oranges from a correspondent in Charleston, South Carolina, 1764. John Bartram partook of "delitious" pomegranates withNoble Jones at Wormsloe Plantation, ear Savannah, Georgia, in September 1765. Thomas Jefferson planted pomegranates at Monticello in 1771; he had them from George Wythe of Williamsburg.
Culinary use
After the pomegranate is opened by scoring it with a knife and breaking it open, the seeds are separated from the peel and internal white pulp membranes. Separating the seeds is easier in a bowl of water because the seeds sink and the inedible pulp floats. Freezing the entire fruit also makes it easier to separate. Another effective way of quickly harvesting the seeds is to cut the pomegranate in half, score each half of the exterior rind four to six times, hold the pomegranate half over a bowl, and smack the rind with a large spoon. The seeds should eject from the pomegranate directly into the bowl, leaving only a dozen or more deeply embedded seeds to remove.
Pomegranate juice can be sweet or sour, but most fruits are moderate in taste, with sour notes from the acidic ellagitannins contained in the juice. Pomegranate juice has long been a popular drink in Europe and the Middle East and is now widely distributed in the United States and Canada.
Grenadine syrup originally consisted of thickened and sweetened pomegranate juice, now is usually a sales name for a syrup based on various berries, citric acid and food coloring — mainly used in cocktail mixing.
Before tomatoes — a New World fruit — arrived in the Middle East, pomegranate juice, molasses and vinegar were widely used in many Iranian foods and are still found in traditional recipes such as fesenjān, a thick sauce made from pomegranate juice and ground walnuts, usually spooned over duck or other poultry and rice, and in ash-e anar or soup made with pomegranate juice.
Pomegranate seeds are used as a spice known as anar dana (from Persian: anar + dana, pomegranate + seed), most notably in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Dried whole seeds can often be obtained in ethnic Indian markets. These seeds are separated from the flesh, dried for 10–15 days, and used as an acidic agent for chutney and curry preparation. Ground anardana is also used, which results in a deeper flavoring in dishes and prevents the seeds from getting stuck in teeth. Seeds of the wild pomegranate variety known as daru from the Himalayas are regarded as high-quality sources for this spice.
Dried pomegranate seeds, found in some natural specialty food markets, still contain some residual water, maintaining a natural sweet and tart flavor. Dried seeds can be used in several culinary applications, such as trail mix, granola bars or as a topping for salad, yogurt or ice cream.
In the Caucasus or Caucasia — a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea mainly occupied by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and southwestern Russia — pomegranates are used mainly for juice. In Azerbaijan, a sauce from pomegranate juice narsharab, (from Persian: (a)nar + sharab, lit. "pomegranate wine") is usually served with fish or tika kabab.
In Turkey, pomegranate sauce is used as a salad dressing, to marinate meat or simply to drink straight. The photo to the right shows Turkish lambchops with candied figs and herbed mashed potatoes, garnished with pomegranate seeds. Pomegranate seeds are also used in salads and sometimes as garnish for desserts such as güllac. Pomegranate syrup or molasses is used in muhammara, a roasted red pepper, walnut and garlic spread popular in Syria and Turkey.
In Greece, pomegranate is used in many recipes, including kollivozoumi, a creamy broth made from boiled wheat, pomegranates, and raisins, legume salad with wheat and pomegranate, traditional Middle Eastern lamb kebabs with pomegranate glaze, pomegranate eggplant relish and avacado-pomegranate dip. Pomegranate is also made into a liqueur, and as a popular fruit confectionery used as ice cream topping, mixed with yogurt, or spread as jam on toast.
In Mexico, they are commonly used to adorn the traditional dish chiles en nogada, representing the red of the Mexican flag in the dish which evokes the green (poblano pepper), white (nogada sauce) and red (pomegranate seeds) tricolor.
Folk medicine
In India's ancient Ayurveda system of folk medicine, the pomegranate is frequently described as an ingredient in remedies. Ayurveda is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The Indian Medical Association characterizes the practice of medicine by Ayurvedic practitioners as quackery. The study of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific while the practice can be classified as protoscience or unscientific. The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of medical knowledge from the gods to sages, and then to human physicians. In Sushruta Samhita, Sushruta wrote that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, including Sushruta. Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia.
Nutrition
A 3.5-ounce serving of pomegranate sarcotesta or fleshy seedcoat provides 12% of the daily value for vitamin C, 16% DV for vitamin K and 10% DV for folate. Pomegranate seeds are a rich source of dietary fiber (20% DV) which is entirely contained in the edible seeds.
Symbolism
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptians regarded the pomegranate as a symbol of prosperity and ambition. It was referred to by the Semitic names of jnhm or nhm. According to the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical writings from around 1500 B.C., Egyptians used the pomegranate for treatment of tapeworm and other infections.
Ancient Greece
The Greeks were familiar with the fruit far before it was introduced to Rome via Carthage, and it figures in multiple myths and artworks. In ancient Greek mythology, the pomegranate was known as the "fruit of the dead," and believed to have sprung from the blood of Adonis.
The myth of Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, prominently features her consumption of pomegranate seeds, requiring her to spend a certain number of months in the underworld every year. The number of seeds and therefore months varies. During the months, while Persephone sits on the throne of the underworld beside her husband Hade, her mother Demeter mourned and no longer gave fertility to the earth. This was an ancient Greek explanation for the seasons.
According to Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, the chambered pomegranate is also a surrogate for the poppy's narcotic capsule, with its comparable shape and chambered interior. On a Mycenaean seal illustrated in Joseph Campbell's “Occidental Mythology” in 1964, figure 19, the seated goddess of the double-headed axe offers three poppy pods in her right hand and supports her breast with her left. She embodies both aspects of the dual goddess, life-giving and death-dealing at once.
The Titan Orion was represented as "marrying" Side, a name that in Boeotia means "pomegranate," thus consecrating the primal hunter to the goddess.
In the fifth century B.C., Polycleitus took ivory and gold to sculpt the seated Argive Hera in her temple. She held a scepter in one hand and offered a pomegranate, like a "royal orb," in the other. "About the pomegranate I must say nothing," whispered the traveler Pausanias in the second century, "for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery." The pomegranate has a calyx shaped like a crown. In Jewish tradition, it has been seen as the original "design" for the proper crown.
A pomegranate is displayed on coins from Side. The photo above features a bronze coin of Side, 350-300 B.C.: obverse, a Corinthian-helmeted bust of Athena; reverse, a pomegranate. The ancient Greek city of Side was in Pamphylia, a former region on the southern Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor — modern-day Antalya province, Turkey.
Within the Heraion at the mouth of the Sele — an archaeological site that contained an ancient Greek sanctuary complex dedicated to the goddess Hera near Paestum, Magna Graecia or southern Italy, is a chapel devoted to the Madonna del Granato, "Our Lady of the Pomegranate," "who by virtue of her epithet and the attribute of a pomegranate must be the Christian successor of the ancient Greek goddess Hera," observed the excavator of the Heraion of Samos, Helmut Kyrieleis.
In modern times, the pomegranate still holds strong symbolic meanings for the Greeks. When one buys a new home, it is conventional for a house guest to bring as a first gift a pomegranate, which is placed under/near the ikonostasi or home altar of the house, as a symbol of abundance, fertility and good luck. When Greeks commemorate their dead, they make kollyva as offerings, which consist of boiled wheat, mixed with sugar and decorated with pomegranate. Pomegranate decorations for the home are very common in Greece and sold in most home goods stores.
Ancient Israel and Judaism
The pomegranate is mentioned or alluded to in the Bible many times. It is also included in coinage and various types of ancient and modern cultural works.
For example, pomegranates were known in ancient Israel as the fruits that the scouts brought to Moses to demonstrate the fertility of the "promised land". The Book of Exodus describes the me’il or "robe of the ephod" worn by the Hebrew high priest as having pomegranates embroidered on the hem, alternating with golden bells, which could be heard as the high priest entered and left the Holy of Holies. According to the Books of Kings, the capitals of the two pillars — Jachin and Boaz — that stood in front of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem were engraved with pomegranates. Solomon is said to have designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's "crown" or calyx.
Some Jewish scholars believe the pomegranate was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Additionally, pomegranates are one of the Seven Species of fruits and grains enumerated in the Hebrew Bible — Deuteronomy 8:8 — as special products of the Land of Israel, and the Songs of Solomon contains this quote: "Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks." (Song of Solomon 4:3).
Consuming pomegranates on Rosh Hashana is traditional because, with its numerous seeds, it symbolizes fruitfulness. Also, it is said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 of the Torah, but it was a misconception. This particular tradition is referred to in the opening pages of Ursula Dubosarsky's novel “Theodora’s Gift.”
The pomegranate appeared on the ancient coins of Judea, and when not in use, the handles of Torah scrolls are sometimes covered with decorative silver globes similar in shape to pomegranates.
Pomegranates symbolize the mystical experience in the Jewish mystical tradition, or kabbalah, with the typical reference being to entering the "garden of pomegranates;” this is also the title of a book by the 16th-century mystic Moses ben Jacob Codovero.
In European Christian motifs
In the earliest incontrovertible appearance of Christ in a mosaic, a fourth-century floor mosaic from Hinton St Mary, Dorset, now in the British Museum, the bust of Christ and the chi rho are flanked by pomegranates. Pomegranates continue to be a motif often found in Christian religious decoration. They are often woven into the fabric of vestments and liturgical hangings or wrought in metalwork. Pomegranates figure in many religious paintings by the likes of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, often in the hands of the Virgin Mary or the infant Jesus. The fruit, broken or bursting open, is a symbol of the fullness of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, pomegranate seeds may be used in kolyva, a dish prepared for memorial services, as a symbol of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom.
Armenia
The pomegranate is one of the main fruits in Armenian culture (alongside apricots and grapes). Its juice is used with Armenian food, heritage, or wine. The pomegranate is a symbol in Armenia, representing fertility, abundance, and marriage. It is also a semireligious icon. For example, the fruit played an integral role in a wedding custom widely practiced in ancient Armenia; a bride was given a pomegranate fruit, which she threw against a wall, breaking it into pieces. Scattered pomegranate seeds ensured the bride future children.
“The Color of Pomegranates,” a movie directed by Sergei Parajanov, is a biography of the Armenian ashug Sayat-Nova (King of Song) which attempts to reveal the poet's life visually and poetically rather than literally.
Azerbaijan
The pomegranate is considered one of the symbols of Azerbaijan. Annually in October, a cultural festival is held in Goychay, Azerbaijan known as the Goychay Pomegranate Festival. The festival features Azerbaijani fruit-cuisine mainly the pomegranates from Goychay, which is famous for its pomegranate growing industry. At the festival, a parade is held with traditional Azerbaijani dances and music. Pomegranate was depicted on the official logo of the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan. Nar the Pomegranate was one of the two mascots of these games. Pomegranates were also featured on the jackets worn by Azerbaijani male athletes at the games' opening ceremony.
China
Introduced to China during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the pomegranate in olden times was considered an emblem of fertility and numerous progeny. This symbolism is a pun on the Chinese character 子 (zǐ) which, as well as meaning seed, also means "offspring," thus a fruit containing so many seeds is a sign of fecundity. Pictures of the ripe fruit with the seeds bursting forth were often hung in homes to bestow fertility and bless the dwelling with numerous offspring, an important facet of traditional Chinese culture.
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