Peels and fresh pomegranate extracts were used in the present study for the determination of the physic-chemical properties and DPPH-ABTS scavenging activities. Total sugars of juice are fructose (ca. 7 g/100 ml) and glucose (ca. 8 g/100 ml). Contents of soluble proteins in juice extracts are about 7 g/l (Bradford assays) and 22% (Kjeldhal assays) from dry pulp. Minerals in peel and juice are respectively 9.43+/-0.93 and 9.46+/-1.05 mg/100 ml for posphorus and 210.86+/-10.70 and 271.94+/-60.59 mg/100 g for potassium. The sodium contents are nearly 7 mg/100 ml in both peel and juice. Highly antioxidant contents in peels were confirmed. Free radical scavenging is about 3.58+/-0.38 microg/ml in peel. The antioxidant capacity value determined by ABTS was 7.364+/-0.403 mM Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity/100 g dry weight. These findings implied that bio-active compounds from the peel might be potential resources for the development of antioxidant function dietary food.

Pomegranate seed oil is considered a powerful health-benefiting agent due to its anti-oxidative and anticarcinogenic properties. Lipids from 21 pomegranate cultivars (15 Tunisian and 6 Chinese) were extracted and fatty acids were identified. Total lipids (16% on a dry weight basis) are mainly unsaturated (ca. 88%). Qualitatively, the pomegranate fatty acid composition is identical. Quantitatively, the predominant fatty acid was linolenic acid (44.51-86.14%), followed by linoleic acid (3.57-13.92%), oleic acid (3.03-12.88%), palmitic acid (3.13-11.82%), stearic acid (1.68-15.64%), gadoleic acid (0.50-4.91%), lignoceric acid ( < 2.53%), arachidic acid ( < 1.70%) and myristic acid ( < 0.85%). Statistical methods revealed how Chinese and Tunisian pomegranate fatty acid contents may be affected by the sampling location.

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Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) were assayed to determine the genetic diversity of 80 barley specimens from South Tunisia. The ISSR primers showed variation in the percentage of polymorphism, band informativeness (Ib), and resolving power (Rp). The percentage of polymorphism is 66.67%, the average Ib ranged from 0.24 to 0.39, while Rp ranged from 0.74 to 1.16. In RAPD analysis, three primers yielded a total of 17 scorable bands, which are all polymorphic. The three polymorphic primers exhibited variation with regard to average band informativeness (AvIb) and resolving power (Rp). RAPD and ISSR marker systems were found to be useful for the genetic diversity among the barley specimens. The two dendrograms obtained through these markers show different clustering of 80 barely specimens, but we noted that some clusters were similar in some cases. A poor correlation (r = 0.12) was found between both sets of genetic similarity data, suggesting that both sets of markers revealed unrelated estimates of genetic relationships. Therefore, the ISSR and RAPD molecular markers show two genetic grouping of studied barely specimens.

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