The effect of pomegranate juice on bacteria and viruses affecting human health: A systematic review

Background and Objective: Pomegranate is known as a popular fruit among the people and mainly due to climatic conditions is raised in the Mediterranean and South Asia. Pomegranate has been used as an antibacterial agent for centuries to treat infections. Several studies have been conducted to determine the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of pomegranate on bacteria and viruses. So, we aimed to evaluate the effect of pomegranate on bacteria and viruses affecting human health.Materials and Methods: pomegranate, bacterial infection and viral infection key words which were chosen according to MESH database, were searched in Google scholar, Pubmed and Scopus databases in Persian or English till 2017. Inclusion criteria was studies which evaluated the effect of pomegranate on bacteria and viruses. Exclusion criteria were the review articles and none English or Persian studies. The study was designed in accordance with the PRISMA protocol and all articles were enrolled to ENDNOTE for processing. Findings: The antibacterial effects of pomegranate, strongly affect on S.aureus, E.coli, C.difficile, S.aeruginosa, salmonella, Listeria and other species that have less human infection, Damage to the wall cell and to enzymes that lead to cell death like glycosyltransferase were observed. Also antiviral effects on the fruit inhibits replication of viruses in human cells and highly affects on Influenza viruses which have high morbidity and mortality. Conclusion: according to our study, pomegranate has antibacterial and antiviral role that can prevent several infections and is suggested to be widely used specially in underdeveloped countries.

کلیدواژه ها:

pomegranate ، bacterial infection ، viral infection