What was the drunken date palm?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
December 29, 2003
Suggested Reading—>Click here.
In 1597, John Gerard had heard of the "drunken Date tree". In The Herbal, he classified date palms under Palma, coconuts under Nux Indica, and all other palms under Areca "which name is used amongst the Portugals which dwell in those Indies". The "drunken date", he called Areca sive Faufel using the Portuguese name with its common Arabian name.
Gerard seldom recommended eating fruit of any sort; he considered fruit to be cold, moist, and causing disease. He believed dates (the fruit of Phoenix dactylifera) "hurtfull", "causing headaches", "ingendering grosse bloud", and "congealing bloud" which "stoppeth the liver".
The drunken date was different and he wrote of the ingenious method used to climb the palm "...an Indian tree of great bignes...exceedingly smooth...not possible to be climbed up...and therefore the Indians for their easier ascending up, at some distances do tie round about the tree certaine wyths or ropes...whereby very easily they go up and downe to gather the fruit at their pleasure."
With only second-hand information, Gerard attributed strange effects to the drunken dates, "...before it be ripe is reckoned amongst the stupefactive or astonishing medicines; for whosoever eateth thereof waxeth drunke, because it doth exceedingly amase and astonish the senses. When the Indians are vexed with some intolerable ache or paine...then do they take of this fruit, whereby the...paine...is very much mitigated." The amazing "drunken dates" were probably the stimulating betel nuts, the fruit of palm now known as Areca catechu Linnaeus. (See Plants that Changed History, October 21, 2003)
Surprisingly, Gerard had no ethical problems with "drunken dates". He recommended "The juice of the fruit of Areca doth strengthen the gums, fasten the teeth, comfort the stomack, stay vomiting and loosenesse of the belly (symptoms of scurvy)...." And just for good measure, he mentioned drunken dates "...also purge the body from congealed or clotted bloud...."
The Dipartimento de Botanico, Università de Catania has a photograph of the betel palm (Areca catechu) with fruit. To view the photograph and learn more about this palm, click on the link:
http://www.dipbot.unict.it/Palms/Descr10.html
Suggested Reading:
What palm has more uses than any other plant? Plants that Changed History - November 20, 2001
What palm produces ivory? Weird Plants - May 13, 2004
What is a toddy? What's in a Name? - January 2, 2004
What is carnauba? Plants that Changed History - March 2, 2004
What was the drunken date palm? Herbal Folklore - December 29, 2003
How was the spiny gru-gru utilized? Herbal Folklore - January 3, 2005
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