Homs: Capers highest producer, famous medical and seasoning plant

Translation by Yusra Ahmed

HOMS (Zaman Al Wasl)- Harvesting Caper berries and caper flowers “capers” known as “kabbar or Shaflah” in Homs’s local area, has finished in the Eastern North Countryside of Homs, after long and hard work for more than 3 months. The work secured many people with opportunities to get some money and jobs, especially in recent time of lack of job in SYria.

Sources told Zaman al-Wasl that Caper berries’ prices have raised this year and reached to $2 for a kilogram, which considered the highest for 15 years.

Around 10 thousand people work on harvesting Caper which done over three months of Summer “June, July and August” in villages of Makhram area.

Farmers reported to Zaman al-Wasl that income for some families reached to half a million Syrian pound.

Many workshops for collecting Caper berries, which look like olives’ fruits, spread in the area. They prepare the product for traders from the Northern countryside who manage to smuggle the product to Turkey and to Europe and Gulf countries afterward.

Ahmad Solaiman, a workshop’s owner, told Zaman al-Wasl: “we sort out Caper berries by size and keep it in water and salt, waiting for traders to come for collection”

Solaiman said that caper's production was affected of bad situation in Syria, but collecting and harvesting it still almost the same.

Many Nutrition experts consider caper useful for atherosclerosis and liver enzymes enhancement.

Razan Dawood, the agriculture Engineer told Zaman al-Wasl that Caper’s root beneficial for anaemia, arthritis, ascites and gout.

Many consumers use it as appetizer when it used with meat and fish.

On the other hand, researches on the plant in al-Baath University five years ago, revealed that Caper plant did not have more than water, glucose and protein.

Caper has fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds”capers” often used as a seasoning, and the fruit “caper berries” both of which are usually consumed pickled. Other parts of Caper plant, like roots are used in the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics.

The caper bush requires a semiarid or arid climate.

Harvest duration of at least three months is necessary for profitability. Intense daylight and a long growing period are necessary to secure high yields. The caper bush can withstand temperatures over 40°C in summer, but it is sensitive to frost during its vegetative period. A caper ush is able to survive low temperature.

In fact it possesses anti-thyroid activity and may contribute to cancer prevention as Selenium, present in capers at high concentrations in comparison with other vegetable products, has been associated with the prevention of some forms of cancer.

Capers can be grown easily from fresh seeds gathered from ripe fruits, it can grow from stem as well.

This species has developed special mechanisms to survive in the Mediterranean conditions.