Pomegranate Punicalagin: A Comprehensive Review of Various In Vitro and In Vivo Biological Studies

Punicalagin, a predominant pomegranate polyphenol, has enormous health benefits, including antioxidants, antiviral, antiinflammatory, and anticancerous. This review aims to summarize recent experimental evidence for the multifaceted biological properties of punicalagin including its dosage, mechanism of action, and modulation of cellular signaling cascades. The published research literature from 2020 to 2024 was searched using Google Scholar, PubMed Central, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. The search term used in all databases is “punicalagin AND in vivo AND in vitro studies”. The full-text publications and abstracts were congregated, scrutinized, summarized, and concluded. The most relevant papers were selected, screened, and considered for the review. Punicalagin has lipid-lowering, antiinflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, hepatoprotective, bone-protecting, skin protecting, lung protecting, wound healing, and hematological effects via modulating various signaling cascades, including AMPK/ACC, NF-κB, PI3K/AKT, JNK, MAPK/NF-κB, AMPK/PGC-1α/Nrf2, Nrf2/ARE/HO-1, Notch/GATA3, and IL-4/STAT6. Several in vivo and in vitro studies have shown the protective effects of punicalagin. However, further research is needed on its functional food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical applications. Furthermore, randomized human trials are required to investigate punicalagin’s bioavailability, dosage effectiveness, safety, and underlying mechanisms.