Pomegranate power is sweeping the nation, the latest in a line of “miracle fruits” touted for its disease-fighting potential.
Is pomegranate profileration something new? Turns out, the exotic fruit has been venerated almost from the beginning. In fact, it might have been so tasty that the pomegranate – not the apple – was the fruit used to tempt Eve to eat from the tree of good and evil.
Pomegranates are red, the size of a large apple. Inside are about 600 seeds coated crimson color and enclosed in a tough yellowish to deep red rind. The seeds and surrounding pulp are edible.
Even though the pomegranate shows up in countless historical references, it’s difficult to trace its origins. We do know it appeared early in the Middle East and India and was cultivated in Egypt before the time of Moses, 4000 BCE. Sanskrit has long had a word for pomegranate, and pomegranates have long been a treat for Arab caravans pulling into an oasis.
Archeologists have determined that Turkey or northern Iran probably first domesticated the pomegranate, along with olives, grapes, figs and dates.
From there, it spread throughout the known world. Homer mentioned pomegranates in his Odyssey and the Roman, Pliny, described how to store them. Pomegranates appear in China’s Han and Sung dynasties. Even though Europeans were slow to warm up to pomegranates (they eschewed fruit and vegetables for meat in their diets), Middle French gave us the word pome garnete, which means seeded apple. By the fourteenth century, some recipes circulated in Paris. Shakespeare mentioned the pomegranate in Romeo and Juliet, so we know it was known in England in Elizabethan times.
In Greek mythology Hades, the lord of the underworld, kidnapped the beautiful Persephone. Because she ate a few pomegranate seeds before being rescued, she had to spend several months every year in the underworld with him. According to the myth, that’s when the earth was forced to endure winter.
In Christian art, the pomegranate is a symbol of hope. It has also been revered as a symbol of fertility and rebirth. More practically, it has been used as a dye and decoration.
If you’ve ever tried to eat this fruit with 600 seeds, you know it’s not only difficult to eat, but can be tart and make the mouth turn dry after eating the seeds. What then gave the pomegranate such staying power? For centuries, it’s been thought to have mystical healing powers. Its rind and bark have been used as astringents, and supposedly the mighty pomegranate can expel and kill internal parasites.
Now, the pomegranate has come into the marketing mainstream where it is touted as a treatment for everything from cancer, to arthritis, to heart disease. Cultivated in California and Arizona, and south into the tropics, it is often combined with other fruits and made into a tasty juice.
Source: Various encyclopedias; www.pomwonderful.com
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