The effects of pomegranate consumption on blood pressure in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hossein Bahari; Kosar Omidian; Kian Goudarzi; Hossein Rafiei; Omid Asbaghi; Kosar Sadat Hosseini Kolbadi; Moslem Naderian; Ali Hosseini

doi:10.1002/ptr.8170

The effects of pomegranate consumption on blood pressure in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Phytother Res. 2024 May;38(5):2234-2248. doi: 10.1002/ptr.8170. Epub 2024 Feb 27.

Authors

Hossein Bahari¹, Kosar Omidian², Kian Goudarzi³, Hossein Rafiei², Omid Asbaghi^{4

5}, Kosar Sadat Hosseini Kolbadi⁶, Moslem Naderian^{7

8}, Ali Hosseini⁷

Affiliations

¹ Transplant Research Center, Clinical Research Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
² College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
³ Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Student Research Committee, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁶ Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
⁷ Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁸ Medicinal Plants Research Center, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran.

PMID: 38410857
DOI: 10.1002/ptr.8170

Abstract

Considering the main component of cardiovascular disease and due to the high prevalence of hypertension, controlling blood pressure is required in individuals with various health conditions. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) which studied the effects of pomegranate consumption on blood pressure have shown inconsistent findings. As a result, we intended to assess the effects of pomegranate consumption on systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure in adults. Systematic literature searches up to January 2024 were carried out using electronic databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, to identify eligible RCTs assessing the effects of pomegranate on blood pressure as an outcome. All the individuals who took part in our research were adults who consumed pomegranate in different forms as part of the study intervention. Heterogeneity tests of the selected trials were performed using the I² statistic. Random effects models were assessed based on the heterogeneity tests, and pooled data were determined as the weighted mean difference (WMD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Of 2315 records, 22 eligible RCTs were included in the current study. Our meta-analysis of the pooled findings showed that pomegranate consumption significantly reduced SBP (WMD: -7.87 mmHg; 95% CI: -10.34 to -5.39; p < 0.001) and DBP (WMD: -3.23 mmHg; 95% CI: -5.37 to -1.09; p = 0.003). Individuals with baseline SBP > 130 mmHg had a significantly greater reduction in SBP compared to individuals with baseline SBP < 130 mmHg. Also, there was a high level of heterogeneity among studies (SBP: I² = 90.0% and DBP: I² = 91.8%). Overall, the results demonstrated that pomegranate consumption lowered SBP and DBP in adults. Although our results suggest that pomegranate juice may be effective in reducing blood pressure in the pooled data, further high-quality studies are needed to demonstrate the clinical efficacy of pomegranate consumption.

Keywords: blood pressure; hypertension; meta‐analysis; pomegranate; systematic review.

Publication types

Systematic Review
Meta-Analysis
Review

MeSH terms

Adult
Blood Pressure* / drug effects
Humans
Hypertension*
Pomegranate* / chemistry
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic