Sumac: Description, Culinary and Medicinal Uses

Common Name: Sumac

Scientific Name: *Rhus coriaria* (Tanner's Sumac) belongs to the family *Pistacia genus*, which is part of the order *Saponae*, a class of flowering plants (angiopodia).

Description: Sumac is a flowering plant that grows in subtropical and temperate regions worldwide, including East Asia, Africa, and North America. It is a dioecious shrub or small tree that can reach a height of 1–10 m. The leaves are usually pinnate, although some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are found in dense clusters or spikes. The flower is very small, green, creamy white, or red, and has five petals. Reddish-brown, thin-fleshed drupes, covered with varying levels of hair when mature, form dense clusters at branch tips, sometimes called bobs sumac. Wild and ornamental sumac species include *R. aromatica*, *R. microphylla*, *R. glabra*, and *R. typhina*.

Culinary Uses: The dried drupes of some species are ground to produce a refreshing crimson spice commonly used in many countries.

In Middle Eastern cuisine, the drupes are ground into a reddish-purple powder used as a spice to add a tangy, lemony flavor to salads or meats.

In Arabic cuisine, sumac is used as a garnish on mezze dishes such as hummus and tashi, and is also commonly added to falafel.

In Syria, sumac is also used as a spice. It is a key ingredient in sumac kibbeh in Aleppo. It is added to salads throughout the Levant and is a main component of the Palestinian dish musakhan.

Sumac is added to rice or kebabs in Afghan, Armenian, Bangladeshi, Iraqi, Indian, Iranian, Mizrahi, and Pakistani cuisines. It is also added to salads, kebabs, and lahmacun (meat pie).

Tanners' sumac is used with thyme in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Central Asian, Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Turkish cuisines.

Medicinal Uses: Various Native American tribes use parts of the sumac plant as an antiemetic, for diarrhea, and to stop bleeding; a treatment for boils, colds, vomiting, asthma, tuberculosis, sore throats, ulcers, and rashes; a remedy for ear, eye, and heart ailments; an astringent; an aphrodisiac; and a mouthwash.

The antlers of sumac are used in similar medicinal treatments. The inhabitants of Natchez, Mississippi, used the aromatic root of sumac to treat boils. The Ojibwe, a people of southern Canada, took a decoction of the root to stop diarrhea.

The fruits, roots, inner bark, smooth leaves, and/or antlers of sumac are used to make dyes of various colors.

Many tribes of the American Plains mix the aromatic leaves, antlers, and smooth sumac with tobacco and smoke it.