The doum palm fruit (scientific name: Hyphaene thebaica; colloquially: gingerbread fruit) has been known to Egyptians for over 5000 years. A team of Egyptian archeologists led by Zahi Hawass found 8 baskets of these nuts in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 2007. Considered sacred by the Egyptian pharaohs, these nuts (called akat in Tigrigna, zembaba in Amharic and mkoma in Swahili) are native to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania and Togo.
The palm tree (arkobkobay ghereb) is extremely drought-tolerant and happen to also have a wood texture that is very resistant to bush fires. The fruit is sold in herbalist shops in Egypt for its therapeutic use. People use it as a herbal tea drink to treat hypertension. While the roots are used in the treatment of bilharzia, the ground nuts themselves have also been used for dressing wounds. A paste of the root is also massaged on the chest in Mali to relieve chest-pain.
A drink made from it is used for the treatment of jaundice (weyba). When softened and dissolved in liquid, the root bark of the tree is used for the treatment of intestinal colic (qirxet) and inguinal hernia. A solution from the leaf fibre (after being boiled and soaked in water) is used as an eyewash to treat conjunctivitis (himam ayni) in Sudan. The fruit itself when eaten raw is also good for the treatment of stomach pain and bladder infection. The fleshy middle part of the fruit is believed to increase the flow of urine (diuretic) and thereby treat ailments that include blood pressure, heart failure, kidneys, liver disease and diabetes. Similarly, drinking the root extract is also believed to be good for treating blood in the urine.
Another interesting side use is for pleasure in Kenya where they use it to make palm wine by way of sapping or drawing the moisture inside the tree just before it flowers.
In Eritrea and Ethiopia, besides using them as edible fruit, children burn this hard-shelled nuts in a firewood inside a mogogo stove (a traditional firewood stove) where they crack them open and remove the hard outer shell-covering. They then take out the inner kernel, hammer in a nail for a tip and use their handiwork as a traditional spin top. Sometimes a hole is drilled in on the side to make it create the special humming sound effect. Just like all spin tops across the rest of the world, a string is coiled around the top and pulled hard while unwinding it and letting it go to make it spin through inertia. Children play this fun outdoorsy game seasonally.
Other practical uses of the doum dates include the production of molasses, cakes and sweetmeats (halewat) which are made from the rind of the seeds; for creating buttons, beads and small carvings which are made from the hard seed inside the fruit; for creating black leather dye (tinta) which is made from the dry fruits; for weaving mats (tenkobet), bags, baskets, hats, fans (meshrefet), strainers (mezfef), bowls, rope, string, nets and coarse textiles which are made from the leaves of the palm tree. And finally, one should not also forget its last occasional use which is that of firewood.
Sources:
Click to access Hyphaene_thebaica.pdf
http://www.prota4u.org/protav8.asp?h=M4&t=Hyphaene,thebaica&p=Hyphaene+thebaica#Synonyms
Click to access Aremu%20and%20Fadele.pdf
——–(a study in pdf)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/170265/doum-nut
http://www.answers.com/topic/doum-palm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphaene_thebaica
Ibrahim Ali
Mar 16, 2015 @ 00:20:28
Thank you for sharing.
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brooke
May 18, 2016 @ 16:12:52
what animals eat this fruit????????
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ibrahimshambel
May 19, 2016 @ 04:18:53
Sorry, I’m not really sure.
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Barsilinga
May 08, 2017 @ 14:07:44
Elephants are primary eaters.
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ibrahimshambel
Jan 28, 2021 @ 02:23:57
Depends! Which country?
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essamqqq
Sep 12, 2019 @ 17:21:14
the people usually eat the doum palm fruit and made from it juice using for hight pressure treatment
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anchwa
Aug 02, 2023 @ 20:25:32
This fruit is not for animals, this is for human being
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Umar Bala
Jun 21, 2016 @ 22:09:15
Thank U for sharing
Can U write to me on facebook or send an email to my mailbox
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Umar Bala
Jun 21, 2016 @ 22:11:29
Can U please write to me on facebook or send an email
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Musad'diq Ya'u Musa
Oct 18, 2016 @ 16:14:21
Brooke, Here In Nigeria Is We Human Being That’re Eating It.
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Ken A Salter
Apr 30, 2017 @ 16:26:27
Where can I buy this item?
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ibrahimshambel
Jan 28, 2021 @ 02:21:49
I’m Eritrean but I live in the Mid-West (America) – I’ve never seen any doum nut here. Maybe, they have them down south in Florida, Arizona, etc.
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promisespecial
Nov 07, 2017 @ 12:59:29
We ate it when I was much younger
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casessd
Mar 22, 2018 @ 11:59:42
Great read, many thanks for sharing it. Very informative and insightful. I am from Sudan and I used to carve small objects and make jewelry from this bountiful fruit. Now I started to commercialize my hippy and sell online.
Please check my Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/doumry/
I will really appreciate your comments.
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ibrahimshambel
Mar 10, 2020 @ 15:53:54
Wow! I didn’t know you could make beautiful jewerly out of it!
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ibrahim sabiu muhd
Jul 31, 2018 @ 16:58:24
Thank you. May Almighty Allah grants you good success in future
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ibrahimshambel
Jan 28, 2021 @ 01:29:25
Ameen, thank you.
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Minna
Aug 23, 2019 @ 21:17:37
This was helpful as I used to eat the hard outer crust as a child but could not remember anything else about the fruit.
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Abdullah
Oct 01, 2019 @ 04:15:20
Hi sir .
Is this fruit available in saudi Arabia..
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ibrahimshambel
Jan 27, 2021 @ 17:45:21
Yes, they are available in the Arabian Peninsula (Israel, Sinai, Yemen and Saudi Arabia) according to this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphaene_thebaica
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T.Gebre
Feb 21, 2020 @ 02:46:48
Excellent briefing
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ibrahimshambel
Jan 28, 2021 @ 01:27:36
Thank you, bro.
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Marta
Mar 16, 2022 @ 21:21:13
Fantastic read! so interesting, please continue to have English posts, I am Eritrean but can’t read the language but would love to learn more about the country
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ibrahimshambel
Apr 27, 2022 @ 14:19:28
Thanks, sis. I will try to do some bilingual posts to meet those needs.
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anchwa
Aug 02, 2023 @ 20:21:32
This fruit can even cure a cancer I love it I use to eat a lot when I was a kid.
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Tom
Mar 18, 2024 @ 19:02:39
When I volunteered in Niger we used to eat the crust on the outside. Sometimes they taste kind of like peaches and sometimes they taste kind of like gingerbread, but the texture is woody and unpleasant. The unripe fruits also contain a liquid and a tough cartilage like nut called, “koloji” in zarma, which translates to collustum. It is said to be good for breast feeding mothers and young kids.
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