Fruit peel (i.e. pericarp + mesocarp) is the most abundant by-product of the agri-food pomegranate processing chain. In recent decades, pomegranate fruit peel is attracting a lot of attention due to the presence of bioactive molecules suitable to be used in the production of food supplements. This study aimed at investigating and characterizing the nutritional and nutraceutical quality of the peels of seven important pomegranate cultivars selected considering the fruit ripening period (early, medium and late), the type of cultivar (sweet, semi-acid and acid cultivar), and the seed hardness. Early (Purple Queen, Acco, and 29–101) and medium (MR100) ripening cultivars showed higher percentages of crude fiber (>2.2%) than the late ripening cultivars (Wonderful, Kingdom and ME17). The highest content of organic acids, punicalagin and its derivates were observed in the peel of acid and semi-acid cultivars (Wonderful, Kingdom and Acco). Acco fruit peel exhibited the highest antioxidant and radical scavenging activity (1.30 and 0.88 mmol Trolox g⁻¹ on a dry weight basis d.w., respectively) as well as total soluble polyphenol (249 mg GAE g⁻¹ d.w.) content. No consistent relationship considering sugar concentration and mineral composition was observed. The wide quantitative and qualitative diversity of bioactive compounds and nutrients observed in the analysed fruit peels showed that the overall biochemical profile is genotype dependent. So far, the findings of this research further highlighted that pomegranate fruit peel contains a wide variety of beneficial compounds, thus showing a high potential in terms of nutrients and nutraceutics, so confirming the importance of pomegranate fruit peels for pharmaceutical and medical purposes.

果皮（即果皮 + 中果皮）是农业食品石榴加工链中最丰富的副产品。近几十年来，由于存在适合用于生产食品补充剂的生物活性分子，石榴果皮引起了很多关注。本研究旨在调查和表征七个重要石榴品种的果皮的营养和营养品质，考虑果实成熟期（早、中和晚）、品种类型（甜、半酸和酸品种）和种子硬度。早熟（Purple Queen、Acco 和 29-101）和中熟（MR100）品种的粗纤维百分比（>2.2%）高于晚熟品种（Wonderful、Kingdom 和 ME17）。有机酸含量最高，在酸性和半酸性栽培品种（Wonderful、Kingdom 和 Acco）的果皮中观察到安石榴苷及其衍生物。Acco 果皮表现出最高的抗氧化和自由基清除活性（1.30 和 0.88 mmol Trolox g^-1分别以干重 dw 计）以及总可溶性多酚（249 mg GAE g ^-1 dw）含量。未观察到考虑糖浓度和矿物质组成的一致关系。在分析的果皮中观察到的生物活性化合物和营养素的广泛的定量和定性多样性表明整体生化特征是基因型依赖性的。到目前为止，这项研究的结果进一步强调了石榴果皮含有多种有益化合物，因此在营养和保健品方面显示出很高的潜力，从而证实了石榴果皮在制药和医疗方面的重要性。