Hyphaene thebaica
| Doum palm | ||||||||||||||
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 Doum Palm in Northern Sudan | ||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Hyphaene thebaica (L.) Mart. |
Hyphaene thebaica (Common name gingerbread tree or thebaica, الدوم in Arabic) is a type of palm tree with edible oval fruit, originally native to the Nile valley. It is a member of the palm family, Arecaceae. Its fibre and leaflets are used by people along the Nile to weave baskets (e.g.Material Culture of the Manasir). The northernmost habitat of the Doum Palm is in Evrona, about 20 km north of Eilat, Israel.
The doum palm fruit is also known in Eritrea as Akat, or Akaat in the Tigrinya language. The thin dried brown rind is made into molasses, cakes, and sweetmeats. The unripe kernels are edible. The shoots of the germinated seeds are also eaten as a vegetable.[1] Herb tea of doum is popular in Egypt and believed good for diabetes.
It was considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians and the seed was found in many pharaoh's tombs.
Doum in Tutankhamun's tomb
On September 24, 2007, it was announced that a team of Egyptian archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass, discovered eight baskets of 3,000 year old doum fruit in King Tutankhamun's tomb.
The fruit baskets are each 50 centimetres high, the antiquities department said. The fruit are traditionally offered at funerals.[2]
References
- Facciola, S., Cornucopia, A Source Book of Edible Plants Kampong.
- ABC story: Fruit hamper found in King Tut's tomb
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Doum palm". Image Credit.
