The doum palm fruit (scientific name: Hyphaene thebaica; colloquially: gingerbread fruit) has been known to Egyptians for over 5000 years. A team of Egyptian archeologists led by Zahi Hawass found 8 baskets of these nuts in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 2007. Considered sacred by the Egyptian pharaohs, these nuts (called akat in Tigrigna, zembaba in Amharic and mkoma in Swahili) are native to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania and Togo.

The palm tree (arkobkobay ghereb) is extremely drought-tolerant and happen to also have a wood texture that is very resistant to bush fires. The fruit is sold in herbalist shops in Egypt for its therapeutic use. People use it as a herbal tea drink to treat hypertension. While the roots are used in the treatment of bilharzia, the ground nuts themselves have also been used for dressing wounds. A paste of the root is also massaged on the chest in Mali to relieve chest-pain.