The use of salt during ancient civilizations

Historically, salt is one of the oldest materials used in man's food. Egyptian pickled fish was highly prized, both locally and by Greeks. Numerous tomb illustrations further suggest that salted mullet roe, a Near Eastern favorite, was already popular in the days of the Pharaohs.

The papyrus Ebers (1600 BC) mentions many salt prescriptions especially for making laxatives and antiinfectives. They were dispensed in either liquid, suppository or ointment form. The ancient Egyptian papyrus Smith, which is thought to refer to the famous master-builder and doctor Imhotep of the third pre-Christian millennium, recommends salt for the treatment of an infected chest wound.

A Sumerian proverb also linked salt with bread as basic foods. Salt was also part of the daily ration (along with barley and dried fish) given by an Akkadian temple to workers.

In the ancient Greece, slaves were bought with salt. For Greeks, it was a sacred commodity and was used as a part of offerings to Gods. Greek medicine, primarily the healing methods of Hippocrates (460 BC), made common use of salt. Salt-based remedies were thought to have expectorant powers. A mixture of water, salt, and vinegar was used as an emetic.

In the early days of the Roman Republic roads were built with the purpose to make salt to get to Rome faster. Via Salaria linked Rome to the Adriatic Sea which being shallower than the Tyrrhenian Sea was more productive although farther away.

In ancient Rome, soldiers and officials were reimbursed in the form of a 'salarium' i.e. salt money—from which our word salary is derived.

Pliny mentioned that dry and bitter salt not only stimulated humans’ appetite, but that of grazing animals as well, so that they yielded more milk and better cheese. In a scientific study, both indirect and direct salt supplements were shown to be beneficial for milk yield and fat content.
The use of salt during ancient civilizations

Cashew Nuts

Cashew Nuts
Brazilian Indian use of cashew nuts and apples is well documented in French, Portuguese and Dutch accounts between 1550 and 1650. The Tupi name acaju became caju in Portuguese and cashew in English.

The juice of the cashew apple has been and still is fermented to make wine. In 1558, Thevet published a drawing of Indians harvesting what were unmistakably cashew fruits and squeezing the juice from apples.

The cashew was probably spread by the Indians as a dooryard garden tree, but there is nor record of systematic planting. It may have been spread by prehistoric Indians into Guianas and eastern Venezuela.

It was probably a dooryard garden plant of the Caribs in the Lesser Antilles. It was not among the plants of the Arawaks of the Greater Antilles, nor was it in Colombia, Central America, or Mexico at the time of the Spanish Conquest. First Spanish accounts were from Venezuela in the mid 16th century.

The Indians roasted cashew nuts in open fires, burning off the caustic shell oil. The Portuguese were quick to adopt the simple Indian techniques of roasting the nuts and making wine from the cashew apples. They occasionally sent some nuts to Lisbon as early as the mid-17th century.

By 1750, cashews quickly were widely planted throughout tropical America, not just for the nuts but as a multiple-purpose garden tree. It made a fine dooryard shade tree, provided the lower branches were pruned.

It was evergreen and pest free, the sap of the trunk should be tapped for an insect repellent, protective varnish. The cashew apple yielded tasty, fresh juice and could be made into preserves. The wine could be distilled for brandy. Excess volunteer trees were cut for firewood and charcoal. Commercial cashew plantations in tropical America were not begun until the 20th century.

Meanwhile, the species had become pantropical. The Portuguese introduced it into India in the 1560s, perhaps more as a source of wine and brandy than for the nuts. Cashew trees were reported in gardens of Cochin on the Malabar Coast and Goa in the 1570s and 1580s. Four hundred years later India remained the world’s main producer of cashew liquor at a rate of about 250,000 gallons a year.
Cashew Nuts