The drunken monkey hypothesis: the study of fruit-eating animals could lead to an evolutionary understanding of human alcohol abuse

I was investigating the biochemical origins of ethanol in fruit, and a very helpful source clarified that "fruits are ripened by ethylene, which is a volatile compound (vaporizes, then diffuses into tissues where it triggers certain reactions and pathways). the alcohol produced is created from by the fermentation of accumulated sugars in the ripe fruit."

Another source informed me that ethene can indeed be hydrolyzed to ethanol, but it's slow, so the yeast effect dominates.

From the article: "the unripe fruit of the Astrocaryum palm contains no ethanol; ripe hanging fruit is about 0.6 percent ethanol by weight; overripe fruit, often fallen to the ground, can have an ethanol content of more than 4 percent."

It would seem that fruit is haram (or grapes at least, according to the Hanafi school).


Addendum:

"The Principle of Istihlak (Extreme Dilution)

Let me first explain this principle with an example: if an animal urinates in a lake (which happens all the time), the water of this lake is still lawful for drink and ablution (wudu) so long as the colour, odour, and taste of the water are unchanged by the urine. This is an example of the principle of istihlak, or extreme dilution,
which can be stated as follows:

When a prohibited substance is diluted in a lawful medium to the extent that none of the known properties of the prohibited substance are noticeable in the lawful medium, then the prohibited substance can be ignored. This principle is based on analogous situations that happened at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam). For example, some people asked the Prophet (sallallahu
`alayhi wa sallam) about a well in which carrion fell. (Carrion is considered impure and anything contaminated by it is prohibited.) The Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) responded that if the water was more than a specified amount then there was no harm in using it. Similarly, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah be pleased with them) would continue to drink fruit juice until it showed signs of fermentation; thus, they would only stop drinking from the juice if its smell or taste indicated that it had become wine. Fermentation of fruit juice begins almost immediately, especially in the heat of the desert. However, these untraceable
amounts of alcohol, which do not affect taste or smell, were ignored by the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (may Allah be pleased with them)...

Similarly, most cheeses are formed with the help of milk-coagulating enzymes, such as pepsin or rennet, which can be taken from pigs and other animals. However, enzymes are catalysts, meaning that they do not actually become a part of the cheese but only aid in its formation. After the milk coagulates and the curds fall to the bottom of the basin, the remaining liquid and enzymes are drained off. While it is possible that some enzymes remain in the cheese, the concentration is minimal.... these principles are not my own conclusions or opinions. Rather, they are unanimously accepted principles of Islamic Law."


Going by the principle of extreme dilution, we wouldn't need to separate Halal and non-Halal cutlery and crockery anymore.

The use of haram ingredients in food, as long as it was in trace amounts and was unnoticeable, would also be permitted (I am put in mind of the "What is Ajinomoto made of" scandal in Indonesia in 2000).

In fact, according to this Muslim scholar (who claims to represent the weight of modern Muslim scholarship), going by the principle of Istihalah (Substantial Change), even chemicals derived from pigs are halal. Which makes me wonder why there are haram lists specifying which of the EXXX (where XXX can take a value between 1 and 999) flavourings/colourings are halal and which are haram. And which means that many of the questions floating around about whether this or that product/food is haram are moot.