What is the Aztec sweet herb?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
December 4, 2003
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading – Plus Jewelry & Three Ages of Man: Click here.
Francisco Hernández had an interesting position in history. As a doctor, he was given the title "Royal Physician of the Western Indies, Isles, and Firm Land of the Ocean Sea". At the age of 55 in 1570, he was the first trained scientist to set foot in New Spain. For the next six years, Hernández documented the plants and materia medica of Mexico.
One of the many plants Hernández described was a member of the Verbenaceae, the verbena family. Known to the Aztecs as tzopelic-xihuitl*, the Spanish called it, hierba dulce, sweet herb. Twenty years before Hernández described it, Aztec physicians recommended the sweet herb for those "troubled by a cough". In the Classic Codex of 1552, Martín de la Cruz, an Aztec physician, wrote "The root of the herb called tzopelica-cococ*,
ground in tepid water is also of value for one with a cough; let him either drink the liquor or gnaw the root." (Badiano Manuscript)
The sweet component of the Aztec's tzopelic (Lippia dulcis Linnaeus, aka Phyla dulcis and Phyla scaberrima) was determined in 1985. The herb's volatile oil contains a sesquiterpene named hernandulcin in honor of Hernández. It is one thousand times sweeter than refined table sugar, sucrose, yet has a low caloric value.
But sweet herb also has a bitter component, camphor, a monoterpene ketone which is toxic. It was discovered that hierba dulce has two chemotypes or chemical races—one race with high levels of the sweet hernandulcin, and one race high in camphor. ("Studies on Some Edible and Medicinal Plants of Mesoamerica", A.D. Kinghorn, Aiko Ito, E.J. Kennelly, Nam-Cheol Kim, & H.E. Westenburg, Proceedings of the West Pharmacological Society, Vol. 41, 1998)
*The Aztecs spoke Nahuatl. Xihuitl was the word for year and implies an annual or the soft parts of a plant, i.e. leaves and soft stems. Cococ was the word for root. In the Classic Codex of 1552, if the leaves were used, then the suffix —xihuitl added, if the root was used, then —cococ.
Warning: the sweet herb is considered a strong emmenogogue and should never be taken by pregnant women.
Shigenobu Aoki has two great photographs of the Aztec sweet herb, Lippia dulcis. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://aoki2.si.gunma-u.ac.jp/BotanicalGarden/HTMLs/sweet-herb-mexican.html
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What Aztec insect was worth its weight in gold? Plants that Changed History - July 23, 2002
How did Aztecs cure fear? Herbal Folklore - September 30, 2002
How were spiderworts used by the Aztec? Herbal Folklore - December 16, 2002
What was the scarlet of the Aztecs? Renfield's Garden - July 24, 2002
Jewelry set, 'Life Amid the Maguey'
NOVICA®
A giant maguey spreads its broad flat leaves to shelter and welcome the personages who dwell among the venerable plants. Working in silver (0.950), Francisco Sánchez creates an image derived from Aztec codices. Yet he brings a fresh, new look to it the design, transforming it into earrings and a matching pendant that hangs from a cord of caucho (rubber). [Tell me more...]
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