Revalenta Arabica on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
{{more footnotes, date=February 2013
Revalenta Arabica, or Ervalenta, was a preparation sold in the 18th century as an empirical diet for
Revalenta Arabica, or Ervalenta, was a preparation sold in the 18th century as an empirical diet for patient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by Health professional, healthcare professionals. The patient is most often Disease, ill or Major trauma, injured and in need of therapy, treatment by a physician, nurse, op ...
s, extraordinary restorative virtues being attributed to it.
The product that was mass-marketed was, in reality, only a preparation of the common lentil
The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...
, its first name being formed for disguise by the transposition of its earlier botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or cultivar group, Group epithets must conform t ...
, ''Ervum lens''. While lentils are a healthy and nutritious food, Revalenta Arabica's value was about similar to the common pea-meal (or ground split peas
Split peas are an agricultural or culinary preparation consisting of the dried, peeled and split seeds of ''Pisum sativum'', the pea.
Harvesting
The peas are spherical when harvested, with an outer skin. The peas are dried and the dull-coloure ...
).
Original
The real ''Revalenta arabica'' is the "root" of ''Glossostemon bruguieri
''Glossostemon'' is a genus of perennial herb in the family Malvaceae native to Iraq, Iran and the Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian pl ...
''. The roots were sold under the name Arabgossi. In Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, they are known as Moghat. The original plant of the product was unknown for a long time, until the German explorer of Africa and botanist Georg Schweinfurth discovered ''Glossostemon bruguieri'' as its source.p. 35 of Max Meyerhof: ''Alî at-Tabarî's "Paradise of Wisdom", one of the oldest Arabic compendiums of medicine.'' In: ''Isis.'' Tome 16, Nr. 1 (July 1931), pp. 6–54.
They are prepared as a light dish for ailing or ill persons. Plant and usage had been described in ''Firdous al-Hikmah'' ("Paradise of Wisdom") of Ali al-Tabari, a medicinal encyclopedia from the 9th century AD."Paradise of Wisdom" chapter 245
References
*This article incorporates text from the ''International Cyclopedia'' of 1890, a publication now in the public domain.