Medicinal Properties of Antioxidant Pomegranate in Cardiovascular Health

Authors

  • Valentina Stefanou Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2856-4206
  • Spiros Papatheodorou Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
  • Despoina Vougiouklaki Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
  • Dionisios Antonopoulos Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
  • Vladimiros Lougovois Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
  • Ioannis Tsaknis Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
  • Dimitra Houhoula Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.

Keywords:

Pomegranate, Phytochemicals, Antioxidant, Cardiovascular, Cholesterol, HDL, LDL, Antihypertensive, Antiatherogenic, Triglycerides

Abstract

Pomegranate is a plant that contains in its fruit, juice, peel, seeds, flowers, bark and roots high concentration of several phytochemicals as polyphenols, tannins, ellagitannins, gallotannins, flavanols, flavones, flavanones, pro-anthocyanidins, anthocyanins, organic acids, alkaloids and others. Most of these compounds possess strong antioxidant properties. Research has shown that due to this antioxidant activity, pomegranate phytochemicals as mixture in the juice, in the plant-part extracts and as isolated compounds may offer many benefits to cardiovascular health. The oxidation of Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) is the main cause of heart diseases. Pomegranate improves the antioxidant status and decreases the oxidative stress. It reduces serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL levels, increases High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), protects against atherosclerosis and acts as antihypertensive. It is found to increase the activity of paraoxonase-1 and paraoxonase-2, serum and tissue enzyme respectively that protect against atherosclerosis. Besides it reduces cardiac fibrosis in diabetic patients, improves the cardiovascular health of aged people and reduces body weight. It is reversing the biochemical changes due to diabetes and the proatherogenic effects due to perturbed shear stress. It is found to affect the values of biochemical parameters as total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, HDL only when they are not normal showing a tendency to the normal, healthy condition than simply changing values even towards the desired direction. In the safety tests that were carried out no side effects were observed.

How to cite this article:
Stefanou V, Papatheodorou S, Vougiouklaki D, Antonopoulos D, Lougovois V, Tsaknis I et al. Medicinal Properties of Antioxidant Pomegranate in Cardiovascular Health. Int J Preven Cardio 2021; 1(1): 19-28.

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Published

2021-02-19

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): International Journal of Preventive Cardiology

Section

Review Article

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