What Is Aragh Kharshotor? Persian Camel’s Thorn Water Explained

Aragh kharshotor is Persian camel’s thorn water — a non-alcoholic distillate of Alhagi, a thorny desert legume that grows where almost nothing else will. It is one of the more unusual bottles on a Persian herbal-water shelf: savoury rather than floral, sold under a botanical name that taxonomists retired long ago, and made from the same bush that produces taranjabin, a genuine manna gathered off the branches at dawn. Here is what it actually is, and what the historical record does and does not support.

What Is Aragh Kharshotor?

Aragh-e khār-e shotor (عرق خارشتر) is made by hydrodistillation — the plant is heated with water, and the steam that carries its volatile compounds is condensed back into a fragrant liquid. The Persian name is literal: khār (thorn), shotor (camel). Camels graze it readily; a classical Persian dictionary quoted by the Encyclopaedia Iranica says simply that it “fattens up the camel,” which is where the plant’s several camel-compound names come from.

The plant is Alhagi, in the pea and bean family. Three species plus a hybrid grow in Iran. It is a desert survivor in the strict sense: it endures the most unfavourable conditions available, including soils under a salt crust, and in search of underground moisture it can send roots five to six metres down. That is what is being distilled — not a garden herb, but scrub that colonises barrens and fallow land.

Shop Camel’s Thorn Herbal Water (Kharshotor) 500 ml.

Why US Labels Say “Hedysarum” — and Why That Name Was Retired

Shop around and you will find this product sold in the United States as “Hedysarum water.” That name is not invented, but it is out of date, and the reason is worth knowing if you are trying to work out whether two bottles are the same thing.

Linnaeus originally placed the plant in the genus Hedysarum, as Hedysarum alhagi. Botanists later moved it to a genus of its own, Alhagi. The Encyclopaedia Iranica, following the treatment in Flora Iranica, lists Hedysarum alhagi L. as a synonym of Alhagi mannifera and states that the old name is “now discarded because taxonomically inappropriate.” A second species carries the same kind of retired synonym: Alhagi pseudalhagi was once Hedysarum pseudalhagi.

So the practical answer for a shopper: “Hedysarum water,” “camel’s thorn water” and “aragh kharshotor” are the same product. One label is using an eighteenth-century name that current botany has set aside. Nothing is wrong with the contents — but if you have been assuming they are two different herbal waters, they are not.

The Same Bush Produces a Manna

This is the part most English-language writing about kharshotor leaves out entirely, and it is the most interesting thing about the plant.

Certain Alhagi species exude a sweet substance called taranjabin — from Persian tar-angobin, literally “moist” or “fresh honey.” Despite an old description of it as a dew falling from the sky, the Encyclopaedia Iranica is clear that it is nothing of the kind: it is a semi-liquid resinous substance exuded by the leaves and branches late in summer during the night, which must be collected in the early hours of the morning. It hardens into white granules. The harvest method is as low-tech as it sounds — the cut, dried bushes are shaken out over a large cloth, and thorns and leaf debris are then winnowed away, which is why taranjabin on the market is rarely perfectly clean.

It does not happen everywhere the plant grows. The nineteenth-century physician Schlimmer recorded manna production in Iran only in particular districts — Khorasan, Tabriz, Tabas, Zarand, Teghrud near Qom, and the port of Bushehr — and only during the hot season. Its sweetness comes from sucrose. It was, and to a degree still is, a real export commodity: Iranian customs figures for 1986–87 record 54,000 kg shipped to Austria in a single year.

The Manna Myth — and Where the Word “Gaz” Comes From

Because taranjabin is sweet, nutritious, appears overnight and is gathered at dawn, several classical authors identified it with the manna of the Book of Exodus. The botanist D. Don went so far as to give Alhagi mannifera the name Manna hebraica.

The Encyclopaedia Iranica rejects that identification as incongruous, and the reason is geographical: camel thorn is reported not to produce any sugary exudate in Egypt or Palestine at all. Nineteenth-century sources put the manna-producing range in Persia, Bukhara, Kandahar and Herat. A plant that only yields manna in Khorasan is a poor candidate for a phenomenon described in Sinai.

The article names a likelier candidate: gaz-angabin, the manna of the tamarisk (Tamarix mannifera). And that is where a Persian sweet you may already have eaten gets its name. Gaz — the pistachio nougat sold everywhere at Nowruz — is named after gaz, the tamarisk, because the original confection was sweetened with its manna rather than with sugar. See the Persian sweets guide, or shop 28% Persian Pistachio Saffron Gaz.

One more piece of camel thorn you may have met without knowing it: the bonfires of Chaharshanbe Suri, the fire festival on the last Tuesday eve before Nowruz, were traditionally fuelled with dried camel thorn bushes, brought into the towns and sold for the occasion.

What It Tastes Like, and How to Drink It

Set your expectations away from the floral end of the shelf. Kharshotor is not rose water and it is not bidmeshk. It reads green and faintly bitter — a plain, savoury water, closer to the herbal side of mint water than to anything perfumed. Iranian households drink it for that plainness, not in spite of it.

  • Diluted, cold — the standard way. A splash in a glass of water, unsweetened. It is an everyday drink, not a treat.
  • Warm — gently heated, never boiled. Boiling drives off the volatile compounds that are the entire point of a distillate.
  • Blended with another aragh — often combined with chicory or a multi-herb water. Because it is not aromatic, it blends without fighting anything.
  • Not for baking. Unlike the floral waters that carry a sharbat or a dessert, kharshotor has no aroma to contribute. Use golab or orange blossom water there instead.

Store it cool, dark and tightly closed, and refrigerate it once opened.

What the Sources Actually Claim — and What They Don’t

Kharshotor carries a heavy load of traditional health claims, and it is worth being exact about where they come from.

The Encyclopaedia Iranica records that in modern Iran the distillate is commercialised under the name araq-e khar-e shotor and “publicized as ‘a strong diuretic, a blood purifier, a kidney detersive,’ and a cure ‘for whooping-cough, renal and vesical calculi, and hot or intermittent fevers.’”

Read that sentence carefully, because it is easy to misuse. The encyclopedia is documenting how the product is marketed in Iran. It is not reporting a tested effect and it does not endorse one. The older medical literature it surveys — Ibn Sina, Ibn al-Baytar and others — concerns the manna and the plant rather than the modern distillate, and classes taranjabin mainly as a laxative and a cough demulcent.

On the modern side, the honest position is that there is very little to report. The most detailed published survey of Persian aromatic waters analyses twenty hydrosols and gives their chemical composition; camel’s thorn is not among the twenty. We could not find a published compositional analysis or a clinical trial of this distillate. Research exists on the plant and its manna in other forms — a randomised controlled trial tested taranjabin combined with camel milk in chronic kidney disease — but that is a different preparation taken a different way, and it tells you nothing about a bottle of herbal water.

Treat aragh kharshotor as what it plainly is: a traditional Iranian household drink with a long record of ordinary use. If you are dealing with kidney stones, a persistent cough or a fever, that is a matter for a clinician, not a beverage. Speak to a doctor before using any herbal product medicinally, and particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medication — diuretic claims are exactly the kind that can interact with prescribed treatment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is aragh kharshotor?

Persian camel’s thorn water — a non-alcoholic distillate made by steam-distilling Alhagi, a thorny desert legume. It is drunk diluted in water, warm or cold, and is one of the plainer, more savoury Persian herbal waters.

Is “Hedysarum water” the same as camel’s thorn water?

Yes. Hedysarum alhagi was Linnaeus’s original name for the plant. Botanists moved it to the genus Alhagi, and reference works now list the Hedysarum name as discarded. Labels using it are quoting a retired synonym, not describing a different plant.

Is aragh kharshotor alcoholic?

No. It is produced by hydrodistillation with no fermentation at any stage. The word aragh comes from an Arabic root meaning “sweat,” a reference to condensation during distilling — which is why it shares an origin with the spirit arak despite containing no alcohol.

What does camel’s thorn water taste like?

Plain and slightly bitter, green rather than floral. It is one of the least perfumed herbal waters on a Persian shelf, which is exactly why it is drunk on its own rather than used to scent food.

What is taranjabin?

A manna — a sweet, sucrose-rich substance exuded overnight by the leaves and branches of certain camel thorn species late in summer, then collected at dawn by shaking the dried bushes over a cloth. The name comes from Persian tar-angobin, “fresh honey.”

Is camel’s thorn manna the manna of the Bible?

Almost certainly not. Camel thorn is reported to yield no sugary exudate in Egypt or Palestine, which makes it a poor fit for an account set in Sinai. Reference sources point instead to gaz-angabin, tamarisk manna — the same word that gives the Persian sweet gaz its name.

Can I cook or bake with aragh kharshotor?

It is not used that way. It has no floral aroma to contribute, so rose water or orange blossom water are the right choices for desserts and drinks. Kharshotor is a drinking water.

Sources

This article covers the culinary and cultural background of Persian camel’s thorn water. It is general information, not medical advice.

Want the wider range? See the full Persian Herbal Waters (Aragh) guide, or browse all herbal waters.

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