Black Walnut:Juglans nigra and Walnut Extracts Benefits.

Contents

• Basic Botanical Data of Walnut.
• Countries of origin:Walnut.
• Naming the Walnut.
• Walnuts Background.
• Walnut Habitat.
• Parts and Uses of Black Walnut:Juglans nigra.
• Parts Used Medicinally.
• Characteristics of Walnut.
• Phytochemical and nutritional composition of Walnut.
• Qualities of Walnut.
• Common Health Benefits of Walnut.
• Medicinal Benefits,Action and Uses of Walnut Part.
• Benefit of Walnut Oil.
• Nutritional Benefits of Walnut:Brain Nourishing Effect and Pharmacological Mechanism.
• Walnuts and your health:Nutritional Profile of Walnut.
• Walnut Varieties and Grading.
• Some of the common walnut species.
• Walnut Applications,Combinations,Contradications,and Safety.
• Walnut and Human Civilization:History and Archeology,World Cuisines,Folklore.
• Walnut In Pandit Heritage:Rituals and Recipes.
• Research Update:Walnut.

Walnut and Human Civilization:History and Archeology,World Cuisines,Folklore.:

History and Archeology of Walnut:

 Though many historians pinpoint Persia as the country of the walnut's origin, confusion persists because archeological remains of walnuts were found as far eastward as the Himalayas and to the distant west and northwest of Persia into Turkey, Italy, and Switzerland as well.

 The oldest archeological site where walnuts were unearthed is in the Shanidar caves in northern Iraq. Following that find, at a considerable distance from Persia, evidence of walnuts was discovered in a Mesolithic dunghill in Switzerland.

 During the New Stone Age or Neolithic period, items found in Switzerland's lake district included walnuts. The Neolithic period began in Southwest Asia from about 8,000 BCE and expanded throughout Europe between 6,000 to 2,000 BCE.

 Traveling slightly eastward, archeologists delicately brushed away layers of dirt in Perigord, France, from Peyrat to Terrasson, to uncover petrified roasted shells of walnuts from the Neolithic period.

 You may have heard walnuts referred to as Persian walnuts. In ancient Persia, only royalty was privy to the pleasure of devouring the walnut, the fruit referred to as the Royal Walnut.

 Mesopotamia, the area that is now modern Iraq, boasted of walnut groves in the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon about 2,000 BCE. As testimony, Chaldeans left clay tablet inscriptions that accounted for these orchards. These were the earliest written records mentioning walnuts.


 Slightly later, about 1795 BCE, Hammurabi, the 6th king of the 1st dynasty of Babylon, set down a code of laws known as the Code of Hammurabi. These laws were incribed on black diorite pillars and categorized by subject. Mention of walnuts was included in the section on laws governing food.

 In the Song of Solomon 6:11 of the Old Testament, King Solomon is quoted,These words refer to walnut groves flourishing and producing abundantly.

I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruit of the valley.

the Song of Solomon 6:11 of the Old Testament

 The first cultivation of walnuts is attributed to the ancient Greeks, but it may have actually been the Persians who first cultivated a superior variety. The walnuts growing in Greece were small and didn't produce a significant quantity of oil. When the Greeks encountered the larger Persian walnuts, they began to improve their variety by cultivation. The ancient Greeks utilized the walnut not only for food, but also as a medicine and a dye for the hair, wool, and cloth.


 About one hundred years after the Greeks were commonly using walnuts, the Romans discovered their merits and were willing to pay dearly for the luxury of serving them along with fruits for dessert. In the ruins of Pompeii whole, unshelled walnuts were among the foods on the table at the Temple of Isis on that fateful day of August 24, CE 79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted.

 Though written records of the walnut's arrival in Kashmir are absent, walnuts were an established presence and, from there, may have journeyed to China during the Han dynasty, some time between 206 BCE and 220 CE.

 Since trading existed long before written records, merchants, explorers, and conquerors were credited with bringing the walnut from the Mediterranean into Europe, possibly during the third century BCE. Some historians question this theory because of archeological evidence discovered in Switzerland centuries earlier.

 It is possible that during the last Glacial Period, known as the Pleistocene era, walnut trees disappeared from the frozen earth of the Northern European countries. After that era, barbarian invaders and Greek and Roman conquerors brought the trees from their homelands into Europe.

 In spite of the frequency with which walnuts are referred to as English walnuts, they didn't really penetrate the English soul until after World War I when they became a commercial enterprise.Though the English climate didn't provide the most ideal conditions for growing walnuts, some trees survived nonetheless.

 The first mention of the walnut's arrival in the British Isles appeared in the Encyclopaedia Britannica dated 1567. However, walnuts were only acceptable served at the end of a meal along with port and Stilton cheese.

 In contrast, the French went nuts over the walnut. Early cultivation began there during the fourth century. Charlemagne, eighth to ninth century, ordered his gardeners to plant walnut trees on his extensive properties. Walnuts were so highly regarded that during the eleventh century, the French peasants were expected to tithe walnuts to the church.

 From Medieval times up until the end of the 18th century, Europeans were blanching, crushing, and soaking walnuts and almonds to create a rich, nutritious milk, a common household staple. While the poor dined on the wild walnuts, the rich were able to afford the larger, more expensive, cultivated variety.

 Toward the end of the 17th century, walnuts along with chestnuts became important staples in France. During the famine of 1663 the poor consumed their walnuts and then resorted to grinding up the shells along with acorns to create coarse, unpalatable bread.

 In World War II when families living in the small villages of Perigord, a region in the southern part of France, had little to eat, they turned to their walnut groves for a source of protein.


 Walnuts Featured in World Cuisines:

 Creative cooks and chefs of many countries have eagerly adopted walnuts and incorporated them into a multitude of dishes from soups to desserts and even dessert cordials.

 Baklava, a well-known delicacy served throughout the Middle East, is a rich dessert made of alternate layers of buttered filo dough and ground walnuts. A final topping of sweet spiced syrup is poured over the top and allowed to soak in for several hours before the baklava is cut into diamond shapes and served.

 Though we are most familiar with fully mature walnuts, green walnuts, completely edible but quite sour, are an ideal ingredient for pickles, jams, and marmalades. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many English cookbooks touted an abundance of recipes for pickling both black and green walnuts.

 In the Middle East, a sweet syrup is used to preserve half-ripe walnuts, a process that takes several weeks before the delicious confections are ready to eat.

 In Italy, walnuts are sometimes added to the pine nuts in the preparation of pesto, a thick basil and olive oil sauce served over pasta. The French enjoy their Walnut Soup and relish sauces made of walnuts, garlic and oil, while the Persians favor a dish called Fesenjen made of poultry or meat, walnuts, and pomegranate juice.

 The ancient Persians made a paste of ground walnuts and used it to thicken soups and stews. During the Middle Ages this handy technique was introduced into Europe. Before the colonists arrived in America, the Narragansett Indians of the Eastern United States also pounded the black walnut into a paste to thicken their soups and vegetable stews.

 During the fourteenth century, walnuts appeared on the dessert list at a French royal banquet. The walnuts for this occasion were preserved in a spiced honey mixture that was stirred once a week for several weeks in preparation for the event.


 Folklore of Walnut:

 The Romans associated the walnut with the Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage and the wife of Jupiter. This association led to the unique wedding practice of throwing walnuts at the bride and groom as a symbol of fertility. Women often carried walnuts to promote fertility.

 There is a legend that presumes walnuts were one of the gifts presented to Jesus by the three wise men.

 English merchant sailors transported walnuts across the globe during Medieval times. Walnuts became so associated with the English that they were often called English walnuts, a name that is still used today.

 One custom in Poitou, France is to have the bride and groom dance around the city's gigantic walnut tree. The villagers believe that by participating in this dance the bride will produce an abundance of milk for her baby.

 In the French countryside, it was tradition to hang a bag of walnuts from the ceiling beam in the kitchen to represent abundance. Walnuts also represented longevity.

 Some young men in the French countryside believed the walnut tree to possess aphrodisiac powers and attempted to sneak a leaf into the shoe of a young woman they admired.

 Along with some items of amusing folklore, the walnut tree holds a few dark superstitions. In seventeenth century Italy there was a walnut tree, the Tree of Benevento, that was believed to be the place where witches gathered. According to a legend, the Bishop removed the tree, roots and all, but another witch-haunted tree grew where the original stood.

 Another legend warns it is unlucky to plant walnut trees too close to a stable because it might bring illness and death to the animals. Even travelers along the road were warned not to choose the walnut tree as a refuge for the night, fearing they may become ill.

 Superstitions and fears also surrounded the shade of the walnut tree. A passage in Pliny's writings states that the shadow of the walnut tree dulled the brain. He also considered the walnut tree a nuisance wherever it was planted.

 Another superstition warns that one should not try to grow anything near the walnut tree, because it contains evil or poison.

 The medieval Doctrine of Signatures stated that because the shape of the walnut resembled the brain, the nut would be beneficial for all ailments associated with the head and brain, including headaches. Later, toward the end of the fourteenth century, walnuts were thought to cause headaches.

 One superstition held that if a walnut were dropped into the lap of a person suspected of being a witch, she would be unable to rise from a sitting position as long as the walnut remained in her lap.

Reference:

• 1.Black Walnut:Juglans nigra and Walnut Extracts Benefits.

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:18th,Oct.2010.