Abstract
The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a bush with abundant foliage originating from Iran, it was brought to Mexico during the time of the conquest and whose main characteristic is the fruit it generates, which is a big, globose berry with thick, shiny skin of red, green or yellow colour depending on the specie of pomegranate and the ripening stage in which itis founding. Recent research has shown that pomegranate contains chemical compounds with antioxidant and bactericidal activities resulting from its secondary metabolism as what are mainly polyphenols, terpenes and alkaloids, which affect the specific concentration of the state of maturity of the product and where most of them, polyphenolic compounds, are found in large quantities at this stage, presenting antioxidant activity and bactericide. The present article has the objective to analyse the ripening stage of three varieties of mexican pomegranate (Wonderful, Apaseo and Tecozautla) through a physicochemical characterization for which the morphology (sizes, colours and hardness) was analyzed as the amount of total suspended solids, pH and titratable acidity in the juice of the product to finish with the determination of the concentration of polyphenolic compounds with possible antioxidant and bactericide activity.
Keywords:
Punica granatum; pomegranate; ripening; polyphenols
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