Apricot during ancient times

Records showing that apricot has been consumed in China for thousands of years. It was discovered 4,000 years ago on the mountain slopes of China, where the fruit was first cultivated.

By 600 BC apricots were a major fruit staple in China, eaten fresh, dried, salt-cured or smoked.

Alexander the Great is believed to have brought the apricot from China to Greece and ultimately to Western civilization.

Apricots have long been a prized commodity in Persia and the Persian called apricot “egg of the sun.”

In Central Asia, apricot cultivation was introduced around 1-2 millennia BC. The Apricot tree was called by the Romans Armeniaca, the tree of Armenia. The Latins also named the apricot precocious, because it ripens at the beginning of summer in June before other fruits.

Wines and distillates made from both cultivated and non-domesticated apricot are traditional beverages in parts of both Europe and Asia.

The apricot tree was first brought to England in 1524 by Woolf the grander to Henry VIII. Apricot oil was used against tumors and ulcers in England in the 1600s. Apricot seeds contain the highest amounts of these cyanide-generating compounds and the controversial cancer drug laetrile is derived from this source.

Apricots probably moved to the United States through English settlers on the East Coast and Spanish missionaries in California.

Apricot during ancient times