Healing Wine Drinking – Traditions of Ancient Armenia

Ancient knowledge from many cultures preserves the memory of the healing properties of grapes and wine. The Armenian people, with their millennia-long existence, have accumulated vast experience in this field. Armenians have mastered the art of vinotherapy since ancient times, as evidenced by many ancient written sources from the Matenadaran and beyond.

Grapes and Wine in Armenian Medicine

Grapes themselves are an excellent dietary and medicinal food. Fresh grapes are beneficial for anemia, pulmonary tuberculosis, bronchial asthma, gastrointestinal inflammation, metabolic disorders, gout, and intoxications.

Wine possesses antitoxic, bactericidal, tonic, and diuretic properties. It kills E. coli and cholera embryos, lowers “bad” cholesterol levels in the blood, separates mucus in the lungs, and normalizes blood pressure. Armenians also used wine externally as a cooling compress and for gum bleeding (mouth rinsing). By adding spices, wild herbs, various honey components, juices, syrups, and other food ingredients to wine, Armenian doctors successfully used these inventions for therapeutic and preventive purposes. Over time, a whole range of national medicinal wines emerged.

Types of Medicinal Wines

• Honey Wine (“napit havshap”): Made from grapes mixed with dates, raisins, honey, sugar, and cereals. It was not only an intoxicating drink but also, when bitter almonds were added, a warming beverage.
• Raisin Wine (“napit chamchi”): Consisted only of wine and raisins. For medicinal purposes (winds, peristalsis), spices were added.
• Herbal Wines: For example, wine with immortelle (“napit amarin”) was used as a diuretic and for amenorrhea. Wine infused with elecampane (“tipakh-gini”) was used for fevers, kidney diseases (dropsy), liver, uterus, and epilepsy.

Grapes in Armenian Healing Practices

Ancient Armenian doctors used all parts of the grapevine for health purposes: ripe and unripe fruits, juice, grape vinegar, leaves, tendrils, vine sap, roots, and ash residues of roots and branches. They extracted essential oil from the seeds. Cold pressing could extract 8 to 20% of fatty non-oxidizing edible oil from grape seeds, used in food in homeopathic doses and in cosmetics and various medicinal ointments and plasters. Raisins also played a significant role in Armenian medicinal nutrition, known as the “doctor of blood, body, and heart.”

Wine in Armenian History

In Ani, Cilician Armenia, and later in “Maritime Armenia,” wine and wine materials played a huge role not only in religious and cult traditions but also as one of the most important medicinal means. Especially during epidemics, wine was an accessible, popular antiseptic. City authorities and clergy ensured that residents’ cellars were sufficiently stocked with wine. Monasteries owned vineyards where professional winemakers worked, ensuring that monastery cellars were always full. Wine cellars were an essential part of the monastery pharmacy. Monasteries had academies and clinics where famous scientists and doctors taught and treated.

Wine as an Antiseptic

Since ancient times, wine has been used as a powerful antiseptic during epidemics in Armenia. The great Armenian doctor Amirdovlat Amasiatsi wrote about wine: “… this drink, given by the Lord, is our hope and support in the fight against plague.” When the plague broke out in the Balkans in 1466-1467, Amasiatsi, the court physician of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, developed a sanitary-epidemiological system that stopped the plague and saved many lives. Later, Louis Pasteur echoed this thought: “Wine is the healthiest and most hygienic of all drinks.” The experience of medieval doctors was later used by Bulgarian epidemiologist Kostov during the typhus epidemic in Bulgaria (1932-1933). Professor N. Prostoserov also noted these properties of wine: “Wine, therefore, is useful in the fight against bacillus carriers… Wine compensates for the loss of vitamins C and B.”

Conclusion

While wine has many health benefits, it is essential to consume it in moderation. As the wise Plato wrote: “We now assert that wine is given to us as a medicine so that the soul acquires conscientiousness, and the body – health and strength.” However, ancient Armenian doctors also knew about the dangers of wine, which is harmful in cases of obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal ulcers, dysbacteriosis, heart and kidney failure. The ancient science of ampelography, the study of grapes, has long existed, and Armenian doctors used all parts of the grapevine for health purposes.

Artatsolum

Based on an article by Natalia Sobol, Historian and Armenologist

Comments on the publication:

• Abramyan A. “Manuscript treasures of Matenadaran”, pp. 82-92.
• Amasiaci A. “Useless for the ignorant”, p. 95.
• Raisins were used to treat ringworm on the body – in humans (also on the scalp), animals. For these purposes, the largest raisins were selected, cut in half along the length of the berry, and the pulp was rubbed onto the bald spot. After about 10, 15 days, the colony of scab died and the hair began to recover – recipe by Siranush Sargsyan. Raisins were infused in vodka, taken for medicinal purposes – indicated for anemia and cardiovascular diseases.
• Porshekyan H. “Oral folklore of the Armenians of Nor-Nakhichevan”, p. 13; Shanginyan Sh., Nazinyan A.I. “A kind word, like a spring day”, pp. 13-15.
• Nikolov E., Nechev Ts. “On plague epidemics in the Bulgarian land during the 15th-19th centuries”, p. 77. A. Amasiatsi A. “Unnecessary for the ignorant”, p. 6.
• For example, in ancient times (and later in vodkas) the plant “big burnet” was infused with wine. Wine-herbal infusions were used during cholera and plague epidemics. In the Armenian monastery pharmacies of the Crimea and Eastern Armenia, a rare herb (“yellow gentian”) was in use. It was imported from the Carpathians, since in Lvov, Kamenets-Podolsk and other cities of Ukraine the “diaspora” had its own settlements since the 11th century. Bible, Book of Judges, Chapter 13.

Sources:

• 1) Abrahamyan A. “Manuscript treasures of Matenadaran”, pp. 82-92.
• 2) Abovyan H. (“Wounds of Armenia (grief of a patriot)”, Yerevan, Armgiz, 1953, ch. II, pp. 93-96).
• 3) Amasiatsi A. “Unnecessary for the ignorant”, p. 6, 39 p. 39; p. 49 p. 107; p. 95; p. 221 p. 131;, p. 297 p. 1857; p. 327 p. 2057; p. 293, par. 1830.
• 4) Great Soviet Encyclopedia, v. III, p. 76.
• 5) M. Gerasimov, T. Politov “Change in OV-potential during various wine processing processes”. Winemaking and viticulture of the USSR, No. 7, 1945.
• 6) A. Griboyedov, Travel Notes, Tiflis, 1932.
• 7) Dulyan S., Aslanyan A., Meet Armenia, Yerevan, Hayastan, 1972, pp. 14, 90-92, 118-119.
• 8) Nikolov E., Nechev Ts., About plague epidemics on the Bulgarian land during the 15th-19th centuries, p. 77.
• 9) Porshekyan H., Oral folklore of the Armenians of Nor-Nakhichevan, p. 13.
• 10) Prostoserdov, Dietary and medicinal properties of grape wine, Novocherkassk, 1993, pp. 41, 44, 48-49, 54.
• 11) “Guide of the State Historical Museum of Armenia”, Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 1963, p. 41.
• 12) Sagokosov M. “On the issue of drinks”, p. 32.
• 13) Shaginyan Sh., Nazinyan A.I. “A kind word, like a spring day”, pp. 13-15.

Respondents:

1. Vilik Babayan (Armenia).
2. Rector of the AAC “Surb Astvatsatsin” (“Holy Mother of God”) ter Anania (Babayan), Russia, Rostov region, Bol’shiye Saly village).