Hidden Secrets of ‘Punica Granatum’ Use and Its Effects on Oral Health: A Short Review

Abstract

The interest in evaluating therapeutic effects of plants has increased dramatically with more and more people inclining toward alternative medicine for their health care needs as they are effective, nontoxic, economical and usually have no sideeffects. Pomegranate is one such fruit/ plant which is beneficial with added effect on oral health.This plant source of polyphenols has antioxidant properties, meaning they help protect cells from damage and may lower the inflammation in the body. Apart from this various other components of the pomegranate plant such as flowers are rich source flavonoids. Peel extracts have been demonstrated to have antibacterial and antifungal activity due to the presence of hydrolysable tannins and polyphenols. The stem part is known to have astringent and antihelminthic properties and the leaves have been used for conjunctivitis.Thus, the purpose of this review is to summarize the therapeutic benefits of various extracts derived from the pomegranate plant and its benefits on oral health.

Polyphenols and their benefits: A review

“…These studies have been conducted by more than a thousand researchers throughout the world and further studies are required on PCs in order to achieve a better understanding of how the expression of PCs can be increased in plants [284,285] and how these compounds can help protect the human body against certain disorders. [286] PCs have a lot more uncovered details [287] and researchers should try to find the physiological role of these compounds in plants [14] and their mechanism of action in the human body. [286] Polyphenols and the treatment of chronic diseases in humans…”

Punica granatum as Anticandidal and Anti-HIV Agent: An HIV Oral Cavity Potential Drug

“…As we noted previously, P. granatum has been widely reported in traditional use for the treatment of dental diseases, and a number of studies concerning the effects on different oral diseases have been published in recent decades, during which a variety of mechanisms of action on bacteria, viruses, and fungi were found. However, P. granatum is different from other plants, not only due its effectiveness and lack of side effects, but also because all parts of the plant can be used for pharmacological effects in oral diseases [ 86 ]. Thus, in Table 3 , we present some of the most representative activities described for P. granatum in oral diseases, in which the fruit is the sole utilized part of the plant for these diseases.…”

Pomegranate as a Potential Alternative of Pain Management: A Review

“…The most widespread use in the world of Punica granatum fruit is as an antimicrobial agent [6,7]. However, the juice, whole fruit, flowers, and roots have many other uses whose effects are reported in scientific reports: astringent, blisters, milkweed, cough [8], abortive [9], burns [10], hypoglycemic [11][12][13], dyslipidemia [14,15], antihypertensive [16,17], weight reduction [15,18], antiatherosclerotic [19,20], against erectile dysfunction [21] anti-inflammatory [22,23], metabolic syndrome [24,25], insulin resistance [26], anti-teratogenic [27][28][29], nephroprotective [30], antimicrobial, anti-fungic [23,31], wound healing [32], oral health [33] and pain, and effects that will be discussed in detail in this document. Thus, pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage [34], the neural process of encoding noxious stimuli is called: nociception [35,36].…”