Ceratonia siliqua harubh. "Ceratonia siliqua", the scientific name of the carob tree, derives from the Greek "kerátiοn" κεράτιον 'fruit of the carob (from "keras" κέρας 'horn'), and Latin "siliqua" 'pod, carob'. The unit "carat", used for weighing precious metal and stones, also comes from κεράτιον, as alluding to an ancient practice of weighing gold and gemstones against the seeds of the carob tree by people in the Middle East. The system was eventually standardized, and one carat was fixed at 0.2 grams. In late Roman times, the pure gold coin known as the "solidus" weighed 24 carat seeds (about 4.5 grams). As
Fineness the volume of gold in an alloy, divide the volume of gold in cubic centimetres or in millilitres by the total volume of the alloy in cubic centimetres or in millilitres. For 10-carat gold, the gold volume in the alloy represents about 26% of the total volume for standard yellow gold. Talking about purity according to mass could lead to some misunderstandings; for many people, purity means volume. "Karat" is a variant of "carat". First attested in English in the mid-15th century, the word "carat" came from Middle French , in turn derived either from Italian or Medieval Latin .