Medicinal plants in Bermet, Serbian aromatic wine

Abstract

Bermet is aromatic, dessert wine with especially unusual and original taste. Bermet is made exclusively from grapes from hillside vineyards of mountain Fruška Gora (Vojvodina, Serbia) and it is enriched with up to 26 aromatic, medicinal herbs. This rare wine is produced in limited quantities, only 15,000 to 20,000 bottles a year. This fact gives to the Bermet a special value and impressiveness. Nowadays, it is known that main medicinal plants included in Bermet production are: wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea), anise (Pimpinella anisum), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), bitterbloom (Centaurium umbellatum), black mustard (Brassica nigra L), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), carob (Ceratonia siliqua) and liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Besides these plants, orange and lemon peel, vanilla bars, dried figs and grape, as well as some quantities of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), are added to Bermet. Pharmacological compounds from these plants have a powerful tonic, antioxidative, antiseptic, antidiarrheic and antipyretic effect. These plants are often used to remedy indigestion and gastric pain in Serbian folk medicine. They can be also used as a carminative and in regulation of the menstruation.

Bermet, as a valuable herbal medicinal beverage, demonstrates the complementary effect of phenolic compounds from red wine and numerous pharmacological compounds from medicinal and aromatic plants added during its production. The aim of this paper was to emphasize the individual effect of these plants, in order to evaluate their contribution to the medicinal value of this aromatic wine.