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Honey bee publish details |
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Traditional Science Modern |
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| Title |
Ancient Egyptian Herbal Wines |
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| Abstract |
Patrick E. McGovern, Armen Mirzoian and Gretchen R. Hall ask a question, Can traditional knowledge produced five thousand years ago still be accessed using modern scientific tools? Authors answer this question through a painstaking multidisciplinary research to investigate herbal ingredients of ancient wine discovered in Egyptian tombs (Patrick E. McGovern, Armen Mirzoian and Gretchen R. Hall (2009); Ancient Egyptian Herbal Wines, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106:18: 7361-7366). Will this convince some of the mandarins in the S & T institutions who would rather focus on short term research ignoring such discoveries. Indian traditional knowledge deserves similar ambitious studies to learn and reinforce a long tradition of experimentation and innovation |
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| Details |
Introduction
This paper on “Ancient Egyptian Wines” unravels the magnificent history of herbal wines in Egypt through state of art bio-molecular analysis and also a thorough corroboration with available historical evidences. The article describes in detail the phase-wise chemical analyses followed in order to identify and confirm the presence of wine and various medicinal ingredients in the two samples collected by archaeologists from pottery jars in Egypt. One of the samples, obtained in the form of a jar, which dates back to 3150 B.C., is called the Abydos sample because it was found in a multi-chambered tomb at Abydos in Egypt. The other one, obtained from a wine amphora, which dates back to 4 to 6th century A.D. is called the Gebel Adda sample because it was recovered from a tomb at Gebel Adda in Egypt. The two samples were chemically analyzed by observation of their radiation/absorption spectrum using multiple tools at different stages of investigation.
Background and History
The history of which fruits and their derivatives did the animals and early humans eat especially fermented ones like wine and beer is looked into first. Fruit bearing trees, which appeared around 100 million years ago had been a source of energy in the animal kingdom since a long time. The fossil remains of the early hominids (early humans), which date back to about 24 millions years, reveal that their dentitions, quite similar to modern apes, orangutans, gorillas and gibbons, were well adapted to eat fruits. It is a known fact that the warm tropical climate enables fermentation of fruit slurries. Thus, the authors contend that the animals and consequently early humans must have started consumption of alcoholic drinks millions of years ago. The “Drunken Monkey Hypothesis” has been cited to explain the genetical foundations of the early human propensity for alcoholic fruit compotes and the diet of Malaysian Shrews is also given as an example to prove the fact. “Malaysian Shrews, which belong to a family believed to be ancestral to all living primates, inhabited earth around 55 millions years ago and the major part of their diet consisted of the palm wine with an alcoholic content as high as 3.8 per cent.”
The authors build an argument for the use of medicinal plants as additives in the wines by citing two bio-molecular evidences from the early Neolithic period in China and Middle East respectively. They further speculate that in the times to come, one can perhaps trace back the history of medicinal wines to the Paleolithic period. Provided the samples are obtained from proper sites with the right environmental conditions such as the bog-like tropical conditions in Mount Verde, Chile which is believed to be the first human settlement site in Americas as early as 13,000 B.C.
Analysis of the two samples
The right environmental condition in Egypt- dry climate- has contributed to excellent preservation of ancient organic materials and also in addition it provides very detailed and long written records of history. The two samples chosen for the study have a time gap of around 3500 years. Idea was to illuminate the earliest and the latest stages of Egyptian wine-making history to trace the entire period of medicinal wines in Egypt.
Chemical Analysis
The whole process of the chemical analysis of the two samples could be divided into two stages namely the preliminary test for primary test of the hypothesis, followed by the confirmatory tests to validate the hypothesis. The two samples were independently analysed in the preliminary stages of investigation. In both the tests one investigation was common, which was testing the presence of Tartaric acid or Tartrate which is known to be a key bio-marker in wines and grape samples.
In the year 1993, the first sample called as the Abydos sample was tested for the presence of tartrate, by three independent methods namely FTIR spectrometry, HPLC, and a Feigl Spot test. Tests were done to confirm the presence of wine in the sample and not grape juice, syrup or vinegar. All the three were refuted; syrup, because it should have left residue inside the vessel, which was not the case; grape juice, because of the chemical test confirming the presence of a DNA segment of wine Yeast and vinegar was ruled out because the evidences could not suggest even a single sign of the intentional fermentation of vinegar due to the sealed jars – the condition in which the sample was obtained. Grape seeds obtained from the Abydos sample further corroborated the presence of wine in the jar.
Having confirmed tartaric acid/tartrate, the two samples were then analyzed by headspace solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) and thermal desorption (TD) GC/MS to test the presence of plant additives in the Egyptian wines which had been applied by earlier analyses. 'These techniques are known for their sensitivity and selectivity; they can perform analyses with the minimum of sample and the analysis can be performed rapidly without extraction in an organic solvent'.
A thorough search of the chemical literature of the US department of agriculture, Agricultural Research Service; the chemical database of the Amber Research Laboratory of Vassar college; and other bio-informatics tools revealed the presence of probable ancient compounds to be distinguished in the Abydos and the Gebel Adda samples. These compounds were namely from the functional groups of alcohols, esters, acids, aldehydes, fatty acid derivates and terpenoids. The Abydos sample yielded 8 terpenoid compounds and this could possibly be due to the presence of herbal additives like savory, Artemisia seibeni and blue Tansy. If one terpenoid compound is left then there could be one more combination of herbal additives derived from balm (Melissa), senna (Cassia), coriander (Coriandrum), germander (Teucrium), mint (Mentha), sage (Salvia) and thyme (Thymus). Further, in case of the Gebel Adda sample, only rosemary (Rosemarinus officinialis) could account for the presence of terpenoid compounds.
The researchers then explored if these plants were known and cultivated in those parts of Egypt. In case of Abydos sample, seven plants are arguably native to areas close to Egypt and today these are grown in areas very close to the site from where Abydos sample was collected. While in case of Gebel Adda sample, rosemary is known to be native to Egypt. These findings strongly suggested the possible use of these herbs in Egyptian Wines. Both the ancient samples also contained compounds found in pine resin. Also, the Gebel Adda sample indicated the presence of a compound Methyl Dehydroabietate, characteristic of pine resin, as it was found consistent with the entire dark coating inside the wine amphora in which the sample was found.
The authors suggest that there could be several permutations and combinations of the herbs that could have been used in the Egyptian wines, but one point is clear that there is strong evidence suggesting the use of Herbal additives in the Egyptian wines.
Conclusions and Limitations
The authors contend that apart from substantiating the presence of tartaric acid/tartrate in the two ancient samples from Egypt, the unintended finding about the presence of herbal additives like tree resins has opened new doors for further exploration and analyses.
Resinated wines have been known from the Middle ages in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. Not only in Middle ages, but even much earlier i.e. around 7000 B.C. Alcoholic beverages containing resins of probable China Fir and Elemi family are known to have been used in the Yellow River Valley of China. The inscriptions on Papyrus leaves mention that an Egyptian Pharaoh named “Djer” was a “physician” and his reign started soon after the reign of the king named Scorpion from whose tomb the sample of Abydos was collected. This indirectly points towards the use of medicinal wines during the times of Scorpion-1 and thus their presence in his tomb.
The Egyptian pharmacopeia inscribed in the Papyrus leaves contains a list of more than 160 medicinal plants in the Hieroglyphic script, but almost 80% of them have defied translation till date. Many vegetables and fruits like garlic, onion, celery, cyperus grass tubers, watermelon, fig, moringa, persea and zizyphus figure prominently in the ingredients; however, by far the most numerous are alcoholic beverages (wine and beer), tree resins (e.g., bryony, coriander, cumin, mandrake, dill, aloe, wormwood). The pharmacopeia describes these plants being used as additives in wine, vinegar, beer, honey, milk, oil and or water as medications for common ailments. Of all the possible additives and their probable sources that the researchers could gauge from the archeo-chemical and archeo-botanical analyses only some are mentioned in the inscriptions. In case of Abydos sample, from among the probable sources of tree resins, only coriander finds mention in the Pharmacopeia and it is thus known to have been used in the times of Tutankhamun as a herbal additive to beer and wine administered as medicine for ailments like stomach problem, blood in stool, herpes etc. The other possible herbal additives in the Abydos sample could not be ascertained due to the failure in deciphering the hieroglyphic script.
According to inscriptions in the temples at Edfu and Philae, an herbal medicine named Kyphi was used as a temple fumigant and beverage additive. The authors contend that a possible ingredient of this Kyphi could be mint (found in the Abydos sample). Further, the authors argue that although much needs to be ascertained about the use of various tree resins and herbs in alcoholic beverages, there is a very high probability that these practices have been in use longer then what the available historical evidences have indicated.
An important common characteristic found in the probable herbal additives in the Abydos sample; they all were domesticated or cultivated in the Southern Levant region (Eastern Mediterranean) prior to their introduction in Egypt. In around 3000 B.C., when the grapevine came from Levant to Egypt, these herbs could have accompanied or soon followed them and thus found their way into Egyptian gardens and homes.
Some researchers have reported the use of rosemary and mint together with thyme medicinal additives, around the same time as Abydos in a sample found at Geno in Spain. Also, rosemary, a probable ingredient in the Gebel Adda sample, was used as a popular food flavorant in Roman and Byzantine times when the Gebel Adda resinated wine was produced.
Finally, the authors conclude that this study has opened doors for further exploration in the ancient practice of medicinal wines and to this end much more archeo-chemical and archeo-botanical analyses needs to be done. Recently, the Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance/MS analysis of the Gebel Adda sample has shown the presence of “reserveratol”- a well known anti-oxidant that possesses anti-cancer properties. This certainly proves that the field of bio-molecular archeology is constantly evolving and numerous latent discoveries are on the pipeline- waiting to be tapped by human ingenuinity.
(Study shows a remarkable attempt at using the most modern scientific tools to decipher the logic and science of traditional knowledge, are Indian and developing country scientists listening?Eds.)
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| Volume No. |
Honey bee 21(2), 17 to 19, 2010 |
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