Phytochemical Constituents, Antimicrobial and Antitumor Effects of Pomegranate Fruit (Punica granatum L).

Pomegranate  fruit  has  exposed  various  health  benefits  in  many  recent  studies  due  to  its  rich  content  of  bioactive  chemical compounds. This  study  was  carried  out  to  investigate  the  content  of these  bioactive  compounds  in  pomegranate  fruit  along with  its  antimicrobial  and  antitumor  effects.  Pomegranate  peel  powder and  juice  were  analyzed  for  its  phytochemical  constituent  content ( total phenols, total flavonoids).  Phenols and flavonoids contents were estimated qualitative and quantitative using HPLC technique.  Furthermore, antitumor activity was tested in vitro on human cell lines.  Likewise, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity were investigated. The results  showed  that  the both  ethanolic  and  aqueous  extracts  of  juice  and  peels  powder  have antitumor  and  antimicrobial  activity.Phytochemicals  have  shown  superior  content  in  peels  than  juice including  total  polyphenols  61.63  and 15.93 mg/g,  and  total flavonoids  49.3  and  25.85 mg/g,  in  peels  and  juice,  respectively. Peels extract has exhibited significant antimicrobial activity higher than aqueous extract of juice at 1000 ppm concentration.  Thus, peels and juice extracts demonstrated higher antimicrobial activity against E.coli, fungi and yeast.  In the test of pomegranate peels and juice extracts for the protective effect against human cell lines, the pomegranate extracts and AgNPs exhibited significant protective effect.In conclusion, our study suggested that pomegranate fruits or its extracts can use as antitumor and antimicrobial agents. Pomegranate fruits are sources of bioactive compounds such as phenolic and flavonoids with potentially high antioxidant activities.