RAV
Rav is a unique and hardly-growing herb found in the mountain peaks of Chitral and Gilgit Baltistan. Rav is the Khowar name of this plant. The actual size of this plant is almost 115 to 125 centimeters in length and dense in shape. This is a seasonal plant that’s why the age is counted as nearly 15 to 20 weeks but it can be less or more according to the temperature of the area. The local people use to eat a little amount of Rav with traditional foods delightfully to acquire its natural benefits.
What is Hing of Rav?
Hing is a thick solid substance attained from the plant of Rav by cutting it with a stone or steel blade to a specific height from the ground. The color of a Hing is white and sometimes yellow as per the condition of the weather. If it is about the taste of Hing, it’s sour and difficult to eat especially for those who try it for the first time.
How to Acquire Hing of Rav?
One more crucial thing to understand is that Hing has a high value over a Rav plant itself because people more often struggle to acquire Hing as well as this substance has a lot of medical benefits. The special thing about this plant which grows at the foot of the mountains is very elusive to attain. One should go through a very difficult process to get milky fluid from the pith of a Rav plant. Local people wait for the right age of the plant to confirm that it’s now able to produce milk so that enough amount of Hing could be attained. The right age for Rav to produce milk is the 9th week from its birth.
When the plant is mature enough, it is cut to its 60th centimeter from the ground with the help of a sharp flat stone and now a knife is used. The second step is to put a large flat and horizontal stone which is called “Khushnalaku” in the Khowar language right under the run of milk which slowly and consistently drips on the flat horizontal stone. Along with time, the milk gathers on the stone and takes three to four weeks to be accumulated to become Hing. A single plant is able to produce up to 200 grams of Hing.
One who takes this responsibility has his own way to secure the Hing from several wild animals and birds. Some people cover it with shopping bags or enough plastic sheets whereas some leave it open. After a certain period, the person revisits to collect the thick solid substance at the peak of a mountain where it was left four weeks ago and brings it along with him to his home.
What are the Medical Benefits of Rav?
There are several medical uses of Hing manufactured by the plant Rav. Despite having a malodorous smell, Raw is more effective than many current chemicals and drugs. To depart its smell traditional people used to boil the plant of Raw and keep it inside the wheat crop at nighttime under the stars.
- High blood pressure.
- To diminish weakness.
- Skin itching.
- Suzak.
- To rise hunger.
- And many other diseases.
Can you eat the plant of Rav itself?
This is another massive question: If Hing is produced from the milk secreted by the Rav plant’s pith, then how is the plant utilized? Traditional people have been using the Rav plant in two ways. The first one is to make it salad and eat it along with all types of foods when it is fresh. It is sour with a malodorous smell and is very challenging to eat. The second use of the Rav plant is to make it cover for spindles of the traditional Khowar spinning wheel what we called “Charkha” in Urdu and “Chakhur” in Khowar.