THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY. PART I. 109 



tanniii, dyeing materials, resin, and a host of minor products. The coco- 

 nut palm in all probability, lends itself to a greater variety of uses than 

 any other. The buri palm is employed to a very great extent in the 

 Philippines in the production of many useful native products and in this 

 respect it shares honors with the coconut, although it is not of great 

 commercial importance at the present time. In some tropical and semi- 

 tropical countries outside this Archipelago other palms are put to varied 

 uses by the natives. 



In certain arid regions, the date palm reaches supreme importance. 

 Many parts of Arabia and the Sahara woidd not be habitable without it. 



Swingle" states as follows regarding this palm: 



"Not only does it yield a delicious fruit of great food value, but it also fur- 

 nishes in many regions the only timber suitable for use in the construction 

 of houses and for making a thousand and one necessary objects. * * * For 

 centuries, the transportation of dates has been the chief motive for the forma- 

 tion of the great caravan routes which run in every direction through the deserts 

 in Africa and Arabia." 



It is extremely probable that the first palm ivine, a product of the fermen- 

 tation of the exuded sap, was made from the date palm which has been grown 

 along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers for over 4,000 years. Small quantities 

 of an alcoholic beverage are still made from this source.'^ The only analysis of 

 this wine which I have been able to find in the literature was made by Balland '^ 

 and is as follows: 



lysis of a sample of palm wine 



from Lagouat, 



Arabia, 



made 



from the sap 



of 40-year-old date palms. 







Water 









83.80 





Alcohol ( equivalent 



to 



fermentable 



sugars 







9.20 grams) 









4.38 





Carbon dioxide 









0.22 





Malic acid 









0.54 





Glycerol 









1.64 





Mannitol 









5.60 





Reducing sugars 









0.20 





Gum 









3.30 





Ash 









0.32 





100.00 



An "acid-sweet sap" is obtained for the manufacture of alcoholic beverages 

 from other species of palms, unknown in the Philippines. 



Martelli '* states that the saps of the African palms, becrari, bajudi, and tabuni. 

 ferment rapidly, producing lakmi, lakby, leghby or palm wine. Legliby, from 



"^Yearbook U. 8. Dept. Agric. (1900), 452; and Bull. U. S. Bur. Plant Ind., 

 (1904), No. 53, 13. 



=" Kearney and Means. Bull U. S. Bur. Plant Ind. (1905), No. 80, 70. "Trees 

 of inferior value are made to yield 'lagmi,' or palm ^vine, a sweet juice which 

 is obtained in abundance by cutting the bud at the summit of the stem." 



"-'Gompt. rend. Acad. Sci. (1879), 98, 262. 



'* Ztschr. f. Untersuch. d. Nahrungs- u. Genussmitted (1910), 3, 200. 



