CIPHET-Pomegranate Aril Extractor, new machine designed and developed by Ludhiana based Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), is a mechanical and continuous system for processing of whole pomegranate of any size, shape and variety and for recovery of clean, whole and undamaged arils.

Pomegranate contains several hundreds of arils completely held within the fruit, manual processing of pomegranates consisting of cutting the fruit by knife into pieces and then separation of arils by hand tends to be very inefficient and highly labour intensive, time consuming and irritating. Arils are so firmly attached to each other and; with rind and peel that it makes difficult to separate manually for industrial processing in large quantity. Industrial processing of pomegranate provides an opportunity to create a new and innovative market for fresh arils, dried arils, juices and wines; and health and pharmaceutical products.

The machine is capable of processing the whole pomegranate at a rate of approximately 5 quintals per hour with extraction capacity of 90-94% and with little damage of arils that is about 1-2%.

The pomegranate breaking and arils separation mechanism is highly efficient with little damage and waste, said Dr R T Patil, director, CIPHET. Peels and other extraneous matter are separated out and yielding clean arils that can be used for further processing or for fresh eating.

The working principle of the invented machine "CIPHET-Pomegranate Aril Extractor" is novel. The machine comprises the main components such as Pomegranate Fruit Breaking unit, Drive unit, Collection Trays where separated arils and extraneous matters are received, Vibrating Sieve unit; and the clean arils and extraneous matter, collection troughs. The fruit breaking unit breaks the fruit in such a manner that the major portion (85-90%) of arils is safely separated out. The rest of the arils that is about 10-15% that remain attached with the broken peels further get separated over the vibrating screen.

CIPHET has also developed the pomegranate aril extractor, a hand tool for breaking of pomegranate and consequently easy separation of arils from its peel. The pomegranate aril extractor appears simple but it works as an important gadget for saving the fruits and vegetables while harvesting and cutting from damage. Use of proper hand tool not only safely removes the fruit from tree or branch but also effectively recovers the edible portion from it. It helps in preventing the storage losses as single damaged fruit can also lead to damage to the whole lot.

The pomegranate cultivation has ushered the world farmers into a new socio-economic life style because its cultivation is gaining high importance and has been regarded as medicinal fruit of great importance. In India, pomegranate is commercially grown in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujrat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Himanchal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan are also turning towards large production of pomegranate. All parts of the tree, the roots, the reddish brown bark, leaves, flowers, rind and seeds have featured in medicine for thousands of years. Pomegranates are not only used for eating but they are also used as medicines. Sugar contents of pomegranate juice are about 12 to 16 %. This sugar is light for digestion. Pomegranate peels are used for medicines and for colouring clothes. Peels of pomegranate is used to prepare toothpastes/toothpowders. Pomegranate juice has iron, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium etc which helps in growth of blood in the body.

Technical Specification
● Higher aril extraction capacity, around 5 q/h (approx 35-40 fruit per min)
Aril extraction/separation efficiency is in the range of 90-94% depending on variety and pomegranate characteristics
● Mechanical damage received by arils is only 3-4%
● Manpower required for safe and smooth running is 2-3 persons
● Electrical power required- 0.75 kW (1 hp)
● Over all dimension of machine is Length-1480mm, Width-660 mm, Height-1710mm and Weight is approximately 250 kg
● Many processed food products such as juice, cold drinks, carbonated drinks, anardana (dried arils/seeds), wine, syrup etc are prepared from pomegranate fruits. Large quantities of pomegranatea arils (juice-enclosed seeds) are consumed in fresh form, however many products like pomegranate juice, RTS beverage, squash, jelly and anardana are prepared on commercial scale. The juice extracted from the whole fruit or cut pieces with peels contributes high amount of tannins and other undesirable biochemical and has to be further clarified by various chemical methods. Extraction of juice from the arils does not require any chemical clarification.