Antioxidant activity of pomegranate juices from different geographical origin and cultivar

Punica granatum L. (Punicaceae), commonly known as pomegranate, is a deciduous shrub cultivated throughout the world and in particular in the Mediterranean area. The fruits arils are consumed fresh or transformed into fresh juices, beverages, jellies and flavoring or coloring agents. This fruits has achieved great attention for its health benefits in the last years [1]. In fact, pomegranate juice has shown significant antiatherosclerotic, anti-hypertensive, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects in human subjects and mouse models [1]. A wide variety of compounds, and among these ellagic acid, ellagitannins (including punicalagina), punicic acid, anthocyanins, flavonols, flavan-3-ols and flavones that show a great antioxidant activity appear to be mainly responsible for its beneficial effects, but several factors such as cultivars, agro-climatic conditions, fertilizer, irrigation, fruit maturity, storage and postharvest treatments influence the quality attributes of pomegranate [2]. For these reasons we studied the antioxidant activity of juices obtained pressing aryls or pulps of pomegranate fruits from various cultivars and from different geographic areas. Seventeen samples of pomegranate fruit, were analyzed, which included Mollar (from Italy and Spain), Wonderful (from Israel, Egypt, USA, Peru and Italy), Bhagwa from India, Herskovitz from South Africa, Hicaznar from Turkey, some Italian local accessions and finally one sample from Tunisia with undefined cultivar. Furthermore, for comparison, we also analysed juice obtained from red oranges and bottled orange and pomegranate juices. Total antioxidant capacity by ABTS assay, Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), Total Phenolic Content (TPC), Total Anthocyanin Content (TAC) were measured. The results show that the antioxidant content of the pulp juices (peels and membranes) is ≈ 50 times greater than those of the aryls. Differences related to the botanical and geographical origin were also observed