Currant
Scientific Name: Ribes
Family Name:
| Pictures Unavailable to Date |
Currants have been grown in Italy for at least four centuries according to an entry in a Florentine recipe book, circa 1550, and according to which a "grape of the monks," with similar characteristics to those known today for some species of Ribes, was grown on Mount Vernia. It now seems certain that the name Ribes is derived from the Arabic ribas. This term identified a rhubarb grown by the Arabs in the Lebanon as a medicinal essence. When, shortly after the beginning of the eighth century, the Arabs conquered Spain and found themselves without their ribas, they looked for something similar, and finding the gooseberry, called it ribas. It is strange that today the old Arabic term has been preserved only in Italian in the common name of one of the species, while it has disappeared in other western languages. In French this plant is called groseillier, in Spanish grosellero, and in English it is called current. The Ribes grossularia, known in Italy as spiny grape (uva spina), is the English gooseberry and is called in German, stachelberre. The red currant (R. rubrum) is native to northeastern Europe as far as the Arctic Sea, and the steppes of northern Asia as far as Siberia and eastern Manchuria. It produced red, semitransparent berries with a pleasantly sour taste. Part of the production is eaten as fresh fruits; the rest is used commercially in the preparation of jelly, preserves, syrups, and currant wine. The berries contain citric, malic and ascorbic acid, equal parts of dextrose and levulose, and are therefore considered a refreshing medicinal essence. They have also been recommended for cases of dysentery. The jelly and syrups, which are particularly refreshing in the summer, also have an emollient action. Besides many varieties with more or less red fruit, many forms obtained by cultivation have colors ranging from yellowish to white. Prominent among the latter is a delicious Holland White which is very good for desserts. At Bar-le-Duc in France, red and white currants are used to make a famous preserve. The black currant (R. nigrum) is a species closer to the gooseberry than to the red currant. The fruit is black and the fresh reddish and sweetish and not particularly good. In Italy it is almost totally unknown; one can fine some fairly extended cultivation only in the south, especially around Naples, but in Germany, England and France it is widespread, where it is also used in a very good liqueur, called Cassis. The therapeutic properties of this plant are thought by some to be great in cases of arthritis, gout, dropsy, and many other complaints. They are not limited to the fruit, but are also common to the stem and the leaves. In some parts of the United States black currants are believed to cause "pine forest disease" which can decimate whole forests, so they are little cultivated there. This disease is called "white pine rust" in the British Isles. Some centuries ago black currants were thought to breed worms in the human stomach. [Bianchini, Francesco, Corbetta, Francesco, Pistoia, Marilena, The Complete Book of Fruits and Vegetables, United States Translation: Crown Publishers, New York, 1976; Originally published in Italy as I Frutti della Terra, Arnoldo Mondadori Publisher, Italy, 1973]