The antioxidant activities of three parts (peel, juice,
and seed)
and extracts of three pomegranatevarieties in China were investigated by using a chemiluminescence (CL) method in vitro. Thescavenging ability of pomegranate extracts (PEs) on superoxide anion, hydroxide radical,
and hydrogenperoxide was determined by the pyrogallol-luminol system, the CuSO
4-Phen-Vc-H
2O
2 system,
and the luminol-H
2O
2 system, respectively. DNA damage preventing the effect of PE was determinedby the CuSO
4-Phen-Vc-H
2O
2-DNA CL system. The results showed that the peel extract of redpomegranate had the best effect on the scavenging ability of superoxide anion because its IC
50 value(4.01 ± 0.09
g/mL) was the lowest in all PEs. The seed extract of white pomegranate could scavengehydroxide radical most effectively of the nine extracts (the IC
50 value was 1.69 ± 0.03
g/mL). Thepeel extract of white pomegranate had the best scavenging ability on hydrogen peroxide, which hadthe lowest IC
50 value (0.032 ± 0.003
g/mL) in the nine extracts. The seed extract of whitepomegranate (the IC
50 value was 3.67 ± 0.03
g/mL) was the most powerful on the DNA damage-preventing effect in all of the PEs. Also, the statistical analysis indicated that there were significantdifferences (at
P < 0.05) among the extracts of the different varieties
and parts in each system.