The bulletin is part of the growing BAPP library of peer-reviewed publications, which now numbers 67, including adulteration bulletins, lab guidances focusing on analytical procedures for given botanicals and other documents. BAPP is a collaborative effort between the lead organization, the American Botanical Council, and the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi.
Growing market
Pomegranates are the fruit of a small tree thought to be native to northern India, Iran and Afghanistan but which has been widely cultivated in warm parts of the world for millennia. There is a thriving trade in the whole fruit, but a far larger market exists for juice products and extracts.
In the United States the market has expanded through the efforts of California power couple Stuart and Linda Resnick via their POM Wonderful brand. According to the BAPP bulletin, the global market for pomegranate products was valued at $8.2 billion in 2018.
The bulletin found that at least three forms of adulteration have been commonly seen in the market. The crudest is the dilution of pomegranate juice with water and sugar and/or less costly fruit juices, such as apple juice. As pure pomegranate juice is a deep red/purple color, such adulteration can be fairly easy to detect via a visual inspection.
The other common forms are more sinister. One form observed in the market is products labeled as ‘pomegranate’ that are composed of a mix of exogenous polyphenols from unspecified sources. Another form, and perhaps the most difficult to detect, is when understrength pomegranate juice is augmented with exogenous polyphenols, such as ellagic acid, to both mimic the color intensity and to some extent the chemical profile of a 100% pure product.