Chocolate: Difference between revisions

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Plant Medicine, Excitantia, Caffeine plant

Chocolate

Theobroma cacao

Chocolate is the fermented seed of Theobroma cacao (genus name = "food of the gods," Linnaeus's coinage). First cultivated by the Olmecs (~1500 BCE) and central to Mesoamerican cosmology — Aztec yollotl-eztli ("heart-blood") was its poetic name. Drunk frothed and bitter, often as a soldier's ration before battle. Brought to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century and slowly tamed with sugar.

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References

Summary

Classes

Plant Medicine, Excitantia, Caffeine plant

Common uses

Mood enhancement0, Cardiovascular flavonoids0

Pharmacy

Preparations

Fermented and roasted seeds, ground. Mexican tradition: drunk with chili, cornmeal, achiote. European tradition: with sugar and milk

Pharmacology

Routes

Oral

Purported mechanism

Primary alkaloid is theobromine (3,7-dimethylxanthine), with minor caffeine. Also contains phenethylamine, anandamide (an endogenous cannabinoid), tryptophan (serotonin precursor), and flavanols. The combined effect is mild stimulation + mood elevation.

“Pendell's corner

Chocolate, cocoa. The "Food of the Gods." Nothing else quite like it.

— Dale Pendell, Pharmako/Dynamis, p. 73

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 {{PendellsCorner
-| quote  = Cacao was the ''food of the gods'' &mdash; ''theobroma'' &mdash; before it was a confection. The Aztec drink was bitter, peppered, sacred; the Spanish added sugar and the world we have was inevitable. The molecule named for the tree is theobromine; the molecule the body makes in answer is anandamide; what comes through is something neither pure-pharmacology nor pure-folklore can quite explain.
+| quote  = Chocolate, cocoa. The "Food of the Gods." Nothing else quite like it.
 | volume = Dynamis
-| voice  = curated paraphrase &mdash; replace with verbatim passage
+| page   = 73
 }}
 [[Category:Caffeine plants]]
 [[Category:Medicines]]