Pomegranate: Biodiversity and genetic resources, a review

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a multipurpose plant that is important as nutrition, medical, horticulture, landscape and environment. The plant has been cultivated since old Iran and Egypt which is mentioned in Bible and Quran. Origin of the plant is Iran and some neighbour countries, although it is cultivated in many countries, now a day. Botanically, it is classified in Punicaceae and has various varieties and cultivars those known as different names in the countries. Germplasm collections have developed in some countries that help genetic resources while germplasm evaluation has been studied by various methods, but determining distinct number of cultivars is not yet possible because of lacking close and distinct characteristics that are acceptable for scientists. In this review, therefore, origin, dispersion, collections and cultivars were investigated to introduce biodiversity and genetic resources of the plant.