Chemical composition of juice and seeds of pomegranate fruit

Abstract

The edible parts of pomegranate fruit represented 52% of total fruit weight, comprising 78% juice and 22% seeds. The fresh juice contained 85.4% moisture, 10.6% total sugars, 1.4% pectin, 0.1 g/100 ml total acidity (as citric acid), 0.7 mg/100 ml ascorbic acid, 19.6 mg/100 ml free amino nitrogen and 0.05 g/100 ml ash. Meanwhile, the seeds are a rich source of total lipids, protein, crude fibers and ash representing 27.2, 13.2, 35.3 and 2.0%, respectively, and also contained 6.0% pectin and 4.7% total sugars. The iron, cupper, sodium, magnesium and zinc contents of the juice were lower than those of seeds, except potassium which was 49.2 ppm in the juice. On the other hand, the physical and chemical properties of seed's lipids indicated that the refractive index was 1.518, melting point 13.0°C, iodine value 74.2, acid number 1.1, unsaponifiable matters 0.7%, saponification value 188.9, ester value 187.8 and glycerol content 10.3%. Moreover, the studied lipids contained 11 fatty acids, from them caprylic, the predominant acid, represented 36.3%, followed by stearic acid (22.5%). Furthermore, oleic and linoleic acids covered 5.1% and 10.3%, respectively. Otherwise, the saturated fatty acids of seed's lipids of pomegranate composed 83.6% of the total fatty acids content.