Licorice in Middle East

The licorice plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is a blue-flowering pea with violet blossoms and spiky leaves. The plant grows to a height of 3–4 feet (90–120 cm). It prefers sandy soil with free drainage. Only after 3 years of growth are the roots thick enough to be harvested.

It has been used for medicinal purposes for millennia. Historically, the dried rhizome and root of this plant were employed medicinally by the Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Indian, and Roman civilizations as an expectorant and carminative.

It was said that Emperor Shennong classified more than 300 different medicinal plants, and one of the most important plants he classified was licorice. Shennong himself believed licorice could be used as an antidote to toxins, to reduce aches and pains, and to cure other ailments.

The earliest evidence of the use of licorice comes from the ancient tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. Licorice root was amongst the many treasures found in the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb from 1350 BC.

References to licorice have also been made on Assyrian tablets dating back to the second or third millennia BC.

The early Egyptians and Assyrians are known to have cultivated the ‘sweet root’ that was later imported to China, where it has been used for centuries under the name ‘Gan Cao’. The Ancient Egyptians believed licorice endowed the recently deceased with the ability to keep evil spirits at bay.

In ancient Scythia, which today is a region that encompasses Iran and parts of eastern Europe, licorice was cultivated, and by the third century BC, it was exported to Greece.

In Medical School of Salerno (VIII–IX century AD) the work Regimen sanitatis carefully examined licorice and its pharmacological properties acquiring the knowledge derived from outstanding Arabic medical scientists like Mohammed Ibn Zakaria Abu Bekr Alrazi (“Rhazes”, 850–925 AD.) and Ibn Sina (“Avicenna”, 980–1037 AD.).

Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the famous physician and philosopher, said in the Canone of Ibn Sina, that: “the infused licorice purifies the voice and the trachea, and is useful in disorders and diets.” He used this plant in treating his patients nine centuries ago.

The Cluniac monks are thought to have ‘discovered’ licorice when accompanying the Crusaders in the Middle East, where it was already a popular drink and a suitable alternative to the banned substance, alcohol. It is thought that they then grew licorice in their herb garden at Pontefract.
Licorice in Middle East

History of pomegranate in Middle East

The pomegranate’s history dates back to biblical times. Its name is derived from the French pomme granate or ‘seeded apple’.

Taxonomists believe that man first began domesticating the pomegranate sometime in the fourth millennium BC in northern Iran and Turkey. It spread widely before recorded history, reaching India and the Mediterranean.

Archeological remains having been unearthed dating to 3000 BC in Jericho. The pomegranate was grown in Babylon and in ancient Jericho. From there, the pomegranate spread into Mesopotamia, India, Northern Africa, and China and then onto Mediterranean Basin.

In Egypt it was found in the tomb of the butler of Queen Hatseput and the first written references comes from the beautiful love poem, The Flower Song of around 1500 BC. In a 12th BC Egyptian papyrus preserved in the Turin Museum, a woman’s beauty is compared to a pomegranate.

Pomegranates are common in Mediterranean cooking for both their seeds and their juice. Pomegranates were introduced into North America in colonial times and thrived on the plains from South Carolina to Florida.
History of pomegranate in Middle East

Origin of pistachio nuts

Pistachio is the only commercially edible nut among the 11 species in the genus Pistachia. Pistachia vera L is by far the most economically important and a member of the Anacardiaceae or cashew family.

The first archaeological findings date back to 6760 BC in the Paleozoic period - in near settlements in the Neolith – in the territory of the present Jordan. Pistachios grew wild in the high desert regions during Biblical times.

Pistachios were soon considered food for the rich and the chosen. The word pistachio appears to derive from the Zendor Avestan (ancient Persian language) pista-psitak and is cognate to the modern Persian word Peste.

They probably come from the Middle East, Persia and western Asia, where they used to grow wildly in high positioned desert regions. The history of pistachio nuts reflects their ‘royal character’ endurance and pride.

Fine pistachio are said to have been a favorite delicacy of the Queen of Sheba who confiscated all Syrian deliveries for herself and for her royal court.

Pistachio trees were planted in the gardens of King Merodach-Baladan of Babylon around the 8th century. In the 2nd century, Nicander found pistachio in Susa, a village in south-western Iran close to the border with Iraq.

The tree was introduced into Europe at the beginning of the Christian era. In the 1st century, Poseidonius recorded cultivated pistachios in Syria and they probably introduced from Anatolia and thence into Italy towards the year 800, subsequently into Spain.

Pistachio has been spread eastward from its center and was reported in China the 10th century AD.

Pistachio was introduced into the USA in 1853-1854. This royal nut was imported by American traders in the 1880s, primarily for US citizens of Middle Eastern origin.
Origin of pistachio nuts

Oats in Middle East

Oats known today were probably cultivated from wild oats by farmers in the Middle East and Europe around 4500 years ago. Oats may have appeared as weeds in wheat and barley field in the Middle East.

Some archeologists determined that one of the first oat harvests was in the Middle Eastern region of the Mediterranean Sea, for reason of rich soil and ease of access to water for irrigation.

Some of the first evidence of oats was found in ancient Egypt. The history of oats is somewhat clouded because there are so many different species and subspecies, which makes identification of old remains very difficult.

Oats appear to have been domesticated from the world grasses native to the mountainous are running from the southern border of Turkey of the Soviet Union with Afghanistan. Oats are better able to withstand harsh growing conditions than wheat and barley. This made oats a valuable grain for feeding the poor who live in disadvantage regions.

The chief modern center of greatest variety of forms is in Asia Minor where most all subspecies are in contact with each other. Many feel that the area with the greatest diversity of types is most likely where a particular plant originated. Historians suggested that oat culture expanded to the north from its Asia Minor centre of origin as a weed mixture in cultivated emmer and einkorn, which are less adapted to northern latitudes than oats and died out while oats thrived in the new environment.
Oats in Middle East