It was fairly deep inside the Kumbhalgarh forest. Out jeep careened over humps on the ground, moving forward, crunching leaves, dry branches and twigs on the floor of the jungle. The dense green canopy of the tall dhok, khair, tendu and ber trees. The teal trees stood tall and majestic, and the bamboo trees shed their thin, slick, knife-like leaves all the time, which the mild May breeze rustled up.

All on a sudden, we came to a forest clearing where some hectic activity was going on. There were men in shabby, sometimes torn shirts and women wearing their saris half the way up to their knees. They were all of the ancient Meena and Bhil tribes. And of all the trees, their central concern was the ber, or the black plum, called jamun or kalajamun in their homelend, the forest.

Even the World Bank recognises today that foresters should be allowed to live in the forests because they know it like their own home. And these Meena and Bhil tribes knew the magic of the black plum. They have been having the fermented juice for ages, and lately, a few decades ago, doctors from the cities told them that plum arrack cures one of diabetes.

What is diabates, they ask? Because they have never had diabetes, so they do not know. But the doctors said that they never had diabetes because they had jamun juice since generations.

I was in Kumbhalgarh at the invitation of the Samarth, an NGO that stopped exploitation of tribal communities in Rajasthan, India’s magnificent desert state. Kamalendra Singh Rathore, the head of Samarth had invited me to see this.

So deep within the forest, where much of the forest floor was coloured deep purple due the fruits being smashed under feet when they fell from the tall trees. Some meh were pulping fermented plums over a dug-up area of six feet by six feet.

The pulp was then being put into a locally made boiler, where the juice was evaporating, the fumes carried trough a pipe to cool down and collect in a different sealed container.

This is pure black plum arrack, collected naturally from deep forests, where no chemicals ever entered; they are collected by tribal women and fermented, and then the village team makes the arrack from them, just as I described.

Kamalendra was not exactly hesitant when were talking, but he was cautious: “Basically this is how illegal hooch, or arrack is made. And in our packages too, we write it is Jamun Arrack. That is because we have medical authority clearance for it as a safe medicine for diabetes.”

The National Health Institutes of the US’ website contains several studies on the health benefits of black plum (Syzygium cumini, also known as Java plum) and its extracts, highlighting its potential in areas like blood sugar management, cancer prevention, and antioxidant activity due to its rich content of bioactive compounds such as jamboline and anthocyanins. While these studies indicate promise for various therapeutic applications, further research, especially in human subjects, is needed to confirm these effects.

Anti-diabetic Properties:

Black plum contains jamboline and jambolin, alkaloids and glycosides, respectively, that may inhibit the conversion of starch to sugar in the digestive system and help control blood glucose levels.

Antioxidant and Anti-cancer Effects:

The fruit is rich in polyphenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins, which are powerful antioxidants. Studies show that black plum extracts have anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects on certain cancer cells, suggesting potential in cancer prevention and treatment.

Black plum is a source of various vitamins, minerals, and soluble fiber, contributing to overall health and potentially aiding in weight management.

The concentration and type of bioactive compounds can vary between different parts of the plant (pulp, seed, leaves), and extraction methods can also influence the final product’s composition.

Recently, it has also been tested for its anti-colon cancer properties, but NIH says that more studies are required to investigate the effects of anthocyanin-rich black plum extracts on colon cancer, especially given the known benefits of dietary anthocyanins

The door opened as if a storm had hit it. Inside, everything was chaotic, flying about… books, pencils, empty plastic bowls. “What’s the matter?” I asked. I had just come from office.

“She won’t have her milk,” wife said, looking furious. I picked baby up and asked her, “Why is my darling not having milk?”

“No honey… Mamma gave no honey.” And that started it. Baby running around, Mamma chasing her with a bread roller. Complete chaos. “You should have given her honey, what’s the problem? I asked my wife.

“I did… she is not having it!” I looked at both, like a peacemaker on the Israel-Palestine border. It transpired that Mamma had given honey, but she does not consider it honey at all! “I want that honey, she said… I want Papa’s honey!”

I got the point finally. I had brought some mountain-forest honey from Udaipur, Rajasthan, from my friend Kamalendra Singh. But that honey had finished. And Baby will not accept anything else… name any brand in the market… everything else is not honey, she stamped her tiny little feet on the ground.

I called Kamalendra over the phone and we had a good laugh, and he promised to send some more of his honey. “Maine to bola hi tha,” he said… “I had told you, this is raw honey, and you have seen how the tribals collect it. This is the purest possible. All the rest in the market are adulterated. Bacche to jhoot nahi boltey hain a (kids don’t lie, isn’t it?)”

The thing is that I had been invited by Kamalendra to visit Udaipur, see how the tribals farm wild, forest honey from up in the hills in the desert state of India. Kamalendra wanted me to write about it.

Indeed, it was something worth writing about. I had visited Udaipur. Two clear hours of drive from the city, we entered the forest. It was May, very hot. But the lush green forests were surprisingly cool.

“I never had an idea. People only think of Rajasthan as a desert,” I said.

“Oh no, there are so many forests and flowering trees are numerous here. The bees collect honey from these flowers. But do you know where the sweetest honey that we have come from? From the neem flowers (Azadirachta indica).

“I am shocked. Neem is extremely bitter,” I said.

“That is true, but our tribals have been collecting this since ages. So, because it is from neem flowers, it has all the well known medicinal values of neem…

 But during my three-day tour of Udaipur, I was struck by the sheer environmental concerns that Kamalendra and his team in the NGO Samarth portray.

“These bees fly away when the monsoon rains start. They have to live in distant areas and up in the hills where there is no or little rainfall. But to fly that distance, they need energy. For that, they also need honey.

“In the past the collectors would set a fire to generate smoke and drive away the bees hack off the entire hive and its honey. Now they leave enough honey for the bees to carry them as energy packets to fly to distance places and survive, and the hive remains almost intact. So when they come back, they have a ready home, Kamalendra explained. I was stunned.

I was stunned because this means that the bees who make the honey, themselves have it, which means it was absolutely pure, wild, forest honey.

So my sweetest civil war at home ended when I told my baby, wait, uncle will send you the honey in a day or two. Her condition for the truce was, she will not have aby other stuff till uncle sends it. “Okay, sweetheart,” I said.

Before I had left the forest in my tour, Nathuram, one of the tribal bee collectors asked me “Tell me, will you make any food at home that you yourself cannot have. Just like that, because this is pure honey, who is the best guarantor? The bees themselves, isn’t it?”.

It was a question that answered itself

– Raj Prakash