Botanical Name:Punica grantum Linn.
Family: Punicaceae

Indian names are as follows:
Hindi:Anardana
Assamese and Bengali: Dalim
Gujarati:DalambDadam
Kannada:Dalimbari
Kashmiri:Daan
Malayalam:Mathalam Pazham
Marathi: Dalimb
Oriya: Dalimba
Punjabi: Anardana
Sanskrit:Dadima
Tamil: Mathalam Pazham
Telugu:Dannima Pandu
Urdu: Anardana.
English Name:Pomegranate

Anardana comprises the dried seeds [dried with flesh] of pomegranate fruit. Pomegranate is a shrub or a small tree 5 to 8 meters high, considered to be native of Iran, Afghanistan and Beluchistan. It is found growing wild in the warm valleys and outer hills of the Himalayas between 900 and 1800m and also cultivated at selected sites almost throughout India. The pomegranate is an ancient and popular fruit. It is a symbol of plenty and prosperity. It grows best in the tropics below an elevation of 1000m with long, hot, dry summers and cool winters, or in those areas, which are continuously warm and dry provided irrigation, is available. High temperature should accompany ripening season.

The fruit is a large globose berry, shiny red, yellowish green, or whitish, when ripe, crowned by the calyx and is generally 5 to 7.5 cm in diameter. The fruit is filled with angular hard seeds, which are covered with a juicy red, pink or yellowish white, sweet-astringent-acid pulp. It is these seeds with pulp, which, when sun dried or dehydrated, constitute the condiment `anardana`. Anardana is used as an acidulant in Indian curries in most of the North Indian states.

Anardana is mostly used as a condiment for acidification of chutneys and certain curries, as in case of tamarind or Amchur. The seeds are reported to be stomachic while the pulp is both cardiac and stomachic. There are many medicinal virtues in almost all parts of this plant; hence there is possibility of preparing many herbal preparations.