Classified ad for Revalenta arabica from The Courier (Hobart, Tasmania) November 1, 1856, p. 4.
Revalenta Arabica, or Ervalenta, was a preparation sold in the 18th century as an empirical diet for patients, extraordinary restorative virtues being attributed to it.
The product that was mass-marketed was, in reality, only a preparation of the common lentil, its first name being formed for disguise by the transposition of its earlier botanical name, 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).
The real Revalenta arabica is the "root" of Glossostemon bruguieri. The roots were sold under the name Arabgossi.[1]InEgypt, 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.[2]
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.[2][3]
This article incorporates text from the International Cyclopedia of 1890, a publication now in the public domain.
^Adolf Engler, Carl Prantl: Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien nebst ihren Gattungen und wichtigeren Arten insbesondere den Nutzpflanzen. W. Engelmann, Leipzig 1887. Nachträge zu III. 6. S. 241
^ abp. 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.
