Pomegranate Extract May Benefit Womens Health, Too

Pomegranates have increased in popularity in the US in the last few years, and for good reason. Not only are they flavorful, but they seem to offer distinct heart, prostate, and joint-related health benefits.

Due to the distinct heart and prostate benefits, the pomegranate has long been associated with men's health. However a new study has found that women may also benefit from adding pomegranate to their diet. Researchers at UCLA have found that pomegranate extract may reduce the risk of some types of hormone-dependent breast cancer.

The two primary groups of antioxidant compounds found in pomegranates are hydrolyzable tannins and anthocyanins. Hydrolyzable tannins are a group of polyphenolic compounds found in plants that have previously been shown to be potent antioxidants with anti-inflammatory activity. Hydrolyzable tannins include ellagitannins and ellagic acid. These appear to be the compounds behind many of pomegranate's potential health benefits and are the compounds the researchers focused on in this study.

Hormone-dependent cancers, as the name suggests, require certain elevated levels of certain hormones to be present in the body in order for the cancer to develop and grow. Estrogen is one of those hormones and is responsible for about 80% of all causes of breast cancer. Aromatase is an enzyme that converts the hormone androgen into the hormone estrogen.

This study found that six metabolites of ellagic acid, found in abundance in pomegranates, inhibit aromatase activity, preventing androgen from being converted into estrogen.

The researchers screened 10 ellagitannin-derived compounds including the well-known and well-studied compounds ellagic acid, ellagic acid, and urolithins A and B. The urolithins are metabolites of ellagic acid, generated by intestinal flora. Urolithin B demonstrated the greatest anti-aromatase effect and, independent of the anti-aromatase effect, urolithin B reduced cancer cell proliferation, slowing cancer cell growth.

The urolithin B demonstrated these effects at doses of 2.35 and 4.7 micromoles per liter in the in vitro ("test tube") trial. According to the researchers "the ingestion of pomegranate juice can lead to concentrations of circulating urolithins reaching up to 18 micromoles per liter in blood." That is significant, as preliminary research often focuses on unrealistic, even unobtainable, concentrations of compounds being tested.

Drawing on this information, the researchers went on to state that "the results of these analyses suggest that pomegranate intake may be a viable strategy for the chemoprevention of breast cancer."

But, we caution you to not get overly optimistic at this point. As promising as the results are, these are very preliminary findings, using cultured tissue, not living human subjects. It is not known whether these findings will translate to similar results in people.

Learn more about the many benefits of Pomegranates and our PomeHealth™ Pomegranate & Resveratrol Blend here.

1. Adams, L. S., Y. Zhang, et al. "Pomegranate ellagitannin-derived compounds exhibit antiproliferative and antiaromatase activity in breast cancer cells in vitro." Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa) 3(1): 108-13.