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The cultural pharmacology of chocolate

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2004 by Tim Batchelder

The relationship between chocolate and female health in our culture is legendary. How many times have we heard a female friend say they "need chocolate," with a tone of desperation in her voice? Indeed, despite its relatively recent reputation as a confection, chocolate has a long history of use for medicinal and nutritional purposes in various cultures. In this article, I will explore the cultural pharmacology of chocolate, drawing extensively on an excellent review of the anthropology of chocolate by Dillinger et al. (2000).

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The Archaeology of Chocolate Ecstasy

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Theobroma cacao, which is native to the Americas, was used in both Mesoamerica and South America and while cultivation and use of cacao was more extensive in Mesoamerica, many scholars have argued for a South American center of domestication (Cheesman 1944, Stone 1984). The wild ancestors of cacao found in Mexico are genetically distinct from both current cultivars and South American wild cacao plants (De la Cruz et al. 1995, Gomez-Pompa et al. 1990).

Chocolate is cacahuatl in Nahuatl (Aztec language), derived from Olmec/Mayan etymology. The word cacao originated with the Olmec peoples who occupied the lowland regions of the eastern Mexican gulf coast (Coe and Coe 1996) and is said as 'kakaw' in Olmec. Cacao terms were subsequently developed by adjacent Mayan people who in the early 21st century have a detailed cacao vocabulary (Coe and Coe 1996). The Nahuatl (Aztec language) term cacahuatl for cacao was concocted from the Mayan word for cacao (Cuatrecasas 1964, Davila Garibi 1939, Thompson 1956). Indigenous peoples of the New World transmitted knowledge of cacao through oral histories, stonework, pottery and the creation of intricate, multicolored documents (codices).

According to the Maya, the god Sovereign Plumed Serpent gave cacao to the people after humans were created from maize (Bogin 1997, Coe and Coe 1996, Montejo 1999, Tedlock 1985) and they celebrated an annual festival in April to honor their cacao god, Ek Chuah, by sacrificing a dog with cacao-colored markings (Aguilera 1985, Thompson 1956). The Mexica (Aztecs) adopted cacao as a food and medicine when they arrived in the central valley of Mexico (Coe and Coe 1996) and the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl (also Plumed Serpent) discovered cacao in a mountain filled with other plant foods (Coe and Coe 1996, Townsend 1992). The Madrid Codex depicts priests lancing their ear lobes and covering the cacao with blood as a suitable sacrifice to the gods. The Mexica also served cacao beverages to sacrificial victims to "comfort them" during an annual festival to honor Huitzilopochtli (god of war and the sun) (Townsend 1992, Vaillant 1941).

Before initial European-Mexica contact in 1519 cacao was taken only as a beverage and reserved for adult males including priests, high government officials, military officers, distinguished warriors and sacrificial victims, since cacao was considered intoxicating and unsuitable for women and children, as well as very valuable (Coe and Coe 1996, Townsend 1992). Cacao residues are found at archaeological sites where chocolate beverages were offered to the deceased (Banales 1999, Hall et al. 1990, Hurst et al. 1989). Cacao seeds also served as currency (Hernandez 1577, p. 303).

European Discovery of Cacao

Columbus, in 1502, was the first European to encounter chocolate, when he captured a canoe that contained mysterious-looking "almonds" in use as a source of currency (Coe and Coe 1996). When Hernando Cortez (Cortes) landed on the east coast of Mexico near modern Veracruz and marched inland (Cortes 1519, Diaz del Castillo 1560), Montezuma's guards brought him, in cups of pure gold, a cocoa drink followed by a feast featuring jugs of chocolate (Diaz del Castillo 1560, pp. 226-227). It is possible that Cortez and his men might have been aware of cacao already from the islands of Cuba and Haiti but the consumption of cacao as a beverage was certainly first observed at Montezuma's court (Lopez-Gomara 1552, p. 162) and introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought by Dominican friars (Coe and Coe 1996). Within a century, demand for this beverage led the French to establish cacao plantations in the Caribbean, while Spain developed cacao plantations in their Philippine colony (Bloom 1998, Coe and Coe 1996, Knapp 1930). The Mayan word cacao entered scientific nomenclature in 1753 when Linnaeus labeled it Theobroma cacao (food of the gods), blending Greek with Mayan etymology (Coe and Coe 1996, Linne, 1741-1778). In the 1880s cacao became a major commercial crop in the English Gold Coast colony in West Africa (Bloom 1998, Knapp 1920 and 1930).

Chocolate in Mexica Medicine

The Florentine Codex (1590), a massive compilation of Mexica culture compiled by priest Bernardino de Sahagun who moved to New Spain in 1529 (D'Owler 1987), emphasizes the effects of green cacao in causing a drunken, dizzy state in high doses and a refreshing, invigorating state in moderate doses (Sahagun 1590, 119-120). Chocolate was drunk by the Mexica to treat intestinal complaints, and combined with liquid from the bark of the silk cotton tree (Castilla elastica), to cure infections (Sahagun 1590 112). Patients with cough who expressed phlegm took an infusion prepared from opossum tail, followed by a chocolate beverage mixed with mecaxochitl (Piper sanctum), uey nacaztli (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon) and tlilixochitl (Vanilla planifolia) (Castillo Ledon 1917, Coe and Coe 1996, Sahagun 1590, Part 12: 12, Durand-Forest 1967, Gauge 1648). Chocolate served as a vehicle to deliver other medicines, including quinametli made of "the bones of the ancient people called giants" (vertebrate fossils?) which was used to treat patients who passed blood (Sahagun 1590:189). The Florentine Codex offered a prescription of cacao beans, maize and tlacoxochitl (Calliandra anomala) to alleviate fever, panting of breath and faintness of heart. The Badianus Codex (1552) noted the use of cacao flowers to treat fatigue.

Health Care Industry

The cultural pharmacology of chocolate

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2004 by Tim Batchelder

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