OPTIMA Super Antioxidant Pomegranate Juice, Pomegranate Juice Concentrate, Natural, Vegan, Food Supplement, 500 ml

Product Information

Reduction of weight, body, and liver fat content, and improvement of LFT in non-diabetic obese women.

Very often, commercial PJs have been obtained by diluting and stabilizing concentrated fruit juices, which, in fact, represent the main half-processed product in the PJ industry [ 33]. Indeed, concentration (in general, not lower than 50% of the original water) allows us to reduce the transport and storage costs as well as to prolong the juice shelf-life due to the significant reduction in water activity. Concentration by evaporation is the most used technique, even if it might be responsible for antioxidant and aromatic substance loss and a general increase in ’cooked’ aroma and ’brown’ colour [ 38], in particular if it is carried out at a normal atmospheric pressure and therefore at 100 °C. Concentration under a vacuum atmosphere, reaching a boiling point at 40–65 °C, allows us to significantly ( p< 0.05) reduce the juice quality loss [ 39]. Concentration by microwaves also leads to a reduction in anthocyanins, colour, and antioxidant activity [ 40]. “Cold” methods such as cryoconcentration and membrane filtration were also tested and shown to have positive effects on the concentrated juice quality. In particular, cryoconcentration allows us to maintain the chemical–sensorial characteristics of the juice in terms of ascorbic acid, total polyphenols, anthocyanins, antioxidant activity, and sensory properties, which remain closer to those of fresh juice [ 41, 42, 43, 44]. Reverse osmosis (RO) is widely used as a pretreatment of the juice before concentration by evaporation or by cryoconcentration. Few studies have been done on this method. RO with modified polyamide membranes reaches a total soluble solids concentration of 18 °Brix and a permeate flow at the end of the process of 11.3 kg m −2 h −1 [ 45, 46]. Osmotic distillation (OD) is another cold concentration technique that allows us to create concentrations in solutes that are much higher than those achievable with RO (around 65–70 °Brix) while maintaining the sensory characteristics of fresh juice [ 46]. Rehman et al. [ 47] compared the performance of two different membranes in the OD process for the concentration of PJ. A polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane showing higher evaporation fluxes allowed them to reach a higher juice concentration (41 °Brix) in a processing time of 24 h with respect to the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane (18 °Brix). The PTFE membrane turned out to be more effective at preserving in the OD concentrate the quality parameters of PJ such as total acidity, total phenolic compounds, total flavonoid content, and total antioxidant activity because wetting did not occur. [ 47]. However, data in the literature to date have been obtained by comparing PJs produced at a pilot plant scale, which usually do not correspond to the parameters and quantities managed in an industrial plant. Anderson, E.; Koppel, K.; Chambers, I.V.E. Consumer evaluation of processing variants of pomegranate juice. Beverages 2015, 1, 3. [ Google Scholar] [ CrossRef]

Funding

Ghoochani, N., et al. (2016). The effect of pomegranate juice on clinical signs, matrix metalloproteinases and antioxidant status in patients with knee osteoarthritis [Abstract]. The results are the mean of two different determinations ± standard deviation. Different lowercase letters (a–h) in the column indicate that the data are significantly different with respect to each other ( p< 0.001).

There are many types of pomegranate juice available, so consider what works best for your taste. For example, you can find single servings of pomegranate juice and pomegranate fizzy drinks. You can also get pomegranate powder which you can enjoy by mixing it into smoothies or puddings. It is typically a freeze-dried powder made from freshly squeezed juice and seeds. As a result, it’s high in nutritional value. For instance, a medium orange (131 grams) has 62 calories and 15 grams of carbs, while an 8-ounce (240-ml) glass of orange juice made from 100% concentrate has 110 calories and 24 grams of carbs ( 5, 20). That’s because juicing requires more fruit than would normally be eaten whole. Additives like sweeteners also contribute calories. In an older study, mice consumed either a control diet or one that was 4% pomegranate. The authors found evidence that ingredients in pomegranate helped restore the activity of certain enzymes. The researchers suggest that pomegranate could have a role in treating Alzheimer’s disease.

Conflicts of Interest

Beyond the health properties, PJ is also appreciated by consumers for its sensory characteristics due to volatile substances (alcohols, aldehydes, esters, and terpenes, responsible for the typical odour) and organic acids and sugars (responsible for the characteristic acidity and sweetness, respectively). Furthermore, interesting is the contribution to PJ sensory properties of polyphenols, including anthocyanins and tannins, which are positively correlated with red colour intensity and taste and tactile sensations (such as light bitterness and astringency, in particular), respectively [ 15].