La Hierberia, Part 4: Herbs of the Mexicas

More herbs and theirs uses, from the pages of Perspectiva Popular—

Cempasuchil (marigold): A Mexican plant (Tagetes erecta) known to the ancient Indians as cempoalxóchitl.  It is an orange or yellow flower abundant in the months of October and November, as people are accustomed to use it for “ofrendas” for the dead in cemeteries and home altars on November 2, the Day of the Dead.  The juice of the plant was used by the ancient Mexicans as an anesthetic.  Remedy: For stomach ailments and biliary colic drink an infusion of 10 grams of flowers in one-half liter of boiling water as a tea.

Camote (sweet potato): From a Nahua word camotli.  It was the ancient Mexicans who also gave the bulb or rhizome, the “potato,” a name which is now used as the scientific name for the whole plant, batata.  The Ipomea batatas is a plant with creeping, branched shoots, alternating heart-shaped and lobular leaves; large bell-shaped flowers, red on the inside and white on the outside, and tubular roots like a potato.  From this root, starch, sugar, organics, and mineral salts of potassium and magnesium are derived.  Remedies: For burns, inflammations, and erisipela, put a plaster on the affected part made by boiling the camote and mixing it with olive oil.  For internal ulcers, drink cups of an infusion of tuber or cooked camote in half a liter of white wine, with a few drops of corn oil.

Epazote (wormseed):  O’pazotili in Náhuatl, it is a Mexican plant, an herbaceous annual, (Chenopodium abrosioides), whose stem, rich in sugars and branched, grows to a height of one meter; with long, lance-shaped, alternating leaves that are toothed and irregular at the edges, dark green and with a very unusual odor.  The flowers are axillary, formed into spikes, conglomerated into limp, slender clusters, small and white; the seeds are shiny with dull edges.  Common in Texas, California, Chihuahua, and other parts of Mexico and Aztlán.  There is a fetid-smelling species called “hierba de zorillo.”  All species contain salts, vegetable fiber, gluten, gum, chlorophyll, starch, soft resin, albumin, and essential oils.  Remedies: For asthma and bad digestion, drink the leaves as a tea boiled in one-half liter of water.  For stomach and side aches, drink a tea made from 10 grams of the grated root boiled in half a liter of water, let sit for a while, strain and drink.

Colorín (naked coral tree, coral bean): Leguminous Mexican Erythina coralloides, whose indigenous name is zompantle.  The Indigenous peoples used its seeds to induce hallucinations, even though the practice created a grave danger of poisoning.  The tree can reach heights of 12 or 15 meters; its branches are spiny, and its leaves are made up of three broad, rounded leaflets; the flowers appear before the leaves, and their fleshy petals resemble sharply-pointed fingers, with a flower at the end of each branch.  They are a bright red color.  The seeds are very poisonous.  (I have personally heard of a child becoming ill from sucking on a necklace made from the seeds—necklaces are made from them wherever the plant grows.)  The fruit is a dark pod, 10 to 12 centimeters long, with polished, scarlet-colored seeds.  The ancient Mexicans used the seeds as markers in the game called patoli.  The seeds and bark contain several alkaloids, including Erythroidine, a strong central nervous system depressant.  Remedies: For chest infections, drink 10 grams of colorín flowers boiled in a liter of water as tea.  For snake bites and scorpion stings, apply the juice of a branch to the affected area and give the patient a few drops of that juice to drink in a glass of water.