By ROGER HARRISON | ARAB NEWS
The value of dates as food has long been known and a simple analysis establishing them as a source of protein, glucose, vitamins and minerals is fact. Far less of an established fact is the folkloric record of their medicinal properties.
As with many folk practices, the medicinal lore of the date was compiled from patient observation perhaps over generations, hearsay and accumulated knowledge passed on through successive generations. That by no means invalidates the knowledge or indeed the efficacy of the fruit or its decoctions and derivatives.
Modern science does not change the value of what the date may or may not do, but can isolate the active ingredients and identifies them so that they might be identified, their medicinal attributes logged and perhaps manufactured. It answers the question of questions; Why?
Categories: Alternative Medicine, Asia, Health, Islam, Saudi Arabia