If there is a fruit I would keep in my dispensary to prescribe, it’s pomegranate without a doubt. Pomegranate is queen amongst fruits due to its multiple health benefits, medicinal uses and versatility. Employed in Ayurveda, eastern and western civilizations for thousands of years, pomegranate has played a key role in many a home and pharmacy. The Spanish city of Granada, my hometown, was named after the red seeded fruit in Moorish times, due to the abundance of beautiful pomegranates around its roads. The city still boasts the fruits on its many trees once the season starts, in early Autumn.

Known as ‘Dadima’ in Sanskrit, Pomegranate is sweet, sour and astringent in taste, cooling in potency. It is a balancing and rejuvenating fruit for Pitta, Kapha and Vata. Pomegranate has many uses, both internally and externally, this post focuses on the main ones.

• Dadima seeds are the best choice for an ill, weak, or convalescing digestive system: they improve taste, stimulate appetite, boost digestion, help control acidity and diarrhoea.

• Pomegranate is classified as a tonic for the heart and mind -hrdya- by Sushruta. It helps the heart in its day-to-day functions by strengthening and supporting it’s delicate tissues and structure. At the same time, it calms and soothes the mind due to it’s Pitta pacifying cooling nature.

• Dadima seeds are juicy and nourishing for the nervous system, they can boost energy and be effective to address tiredness and fatigue due to physical and mental stress.

• Externally, boiled pomegranate rind heals wounds and reduces swelling. The gargles of the same help ulcers in the oral cavity and throat heal. Even the fruit juice applied on the skin, mitigates rashes.

How can you take Pomegranate? It’s delicious in a chutney or added in soups and salads. Also ideal as a fruit snack, it’s good to take Pomegranate on it’s own, not combining it with any other fruit.
Open the pomegranate with a knife and separate the seeds from the peel and internal white pulp. Put in a bowl and enjoy!