Spanish conquistadores

Carmine is a colored pigment extracted from the female insect Coccus cacti or Dactylopius coccus, or its eggs. These insects live on prickly pear cactus in Mexico. The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes brought the dye to Europe after seeing the Aztecs use it. 

Spanish conquistadors introduced coca to Europe and the original missionaries unsuccessfully attempted to ban it use. The Catholic Church viewed its use as an act of paganism and a remnant of native religious ceremonies. Despite this position and the Church s destruction of cultured coca crops, cocas widespread use among many isolated cultures prevented significant... 

Although the use of the mushrooms and morning glories was documented by the Spanish conquistadores... 

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in America they were impressed with the brilliant red fabrics worn by the Aztecs. Then the Spaniards learned that the Aztecs knew of another dye-producing insect — the cochineal. A type of cactus known as opuntia, plentiful in South America, was the ideal breeding ground for these insects, and the females produced the dye. The Aztecs had developed the technique of sweeping the insects off the leaves into hot water to kill them before drying the corpses in the sun. There was no gender separation the useless males were sacrificed to the fascinating chemistry of the female. 

Lycopene was introduced into the Western world after the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes was offered some tomatoes by the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Cortes disregarded this courteous gesture and went on to conquer Mexico from 1529 to 1531. In the states bordering Mexico — Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California — tomatoes and other Mexican-Indian foods soon began to be adopted but also made their way to Europe. In Italy, tomatoes were mentioned as early as in 1554 and were then slowly assimilated. Their initial color was yellow (porno d oro) they obtained their red appearance only after years of cultivation. Today, tomatoes, the major source of lycopene, are an important part of the Mediterranean diet. 

Vanilla was highly regarded in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and was brought back to Europe, and from there to the rest of the world, by the Spanish Conquistadors. In ancient Mexico, the Totonac people (present state of Veracruz (Papantla), Mexico) were regarded as the producers of the best vanilla. 

The tree is said to have been discovered in the Amazon or Orinoco basin at least 4000 years ago. Christopher Columbus was the first European to encounter the beans, during his fourth voyage to the New World in 1502, but he virtually ignored them. It was two decades later that the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes helped spread the valuable cocoa bean crop to the Caribbean and Africa, and then he introduced drinking chocolate into Spain in 1528. The cacao tree is now cultivated in West Africa, South America, Central America, and the Far East. At world level, the demand for cocoa is generally measured by reference to world grindings. The world grindings of cocoa beans in 2003/2004 approached three million metric tons. 

The Spanish Conquistadors of the Sixteenth Century sent back news to Spain that the indigenous population used Stevia to sweeten their herbal teas since ancient times, i.e. predating 1500 AD. 

Spanish conquistadores recounted tales of early coca use as in this quote from the journal of Pedro Cieza de Leon ... 

In between, a sort of bioterrorism came to the New World in the fifteenth century, aimed to defeat the Indians. Spanish conquistador Pizarro gave clothing contaminated with the smallpox virus to natives in South America. During the French and Indian War (1754-1767) Sir Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces in North America, suggested the deliberate use of smallpox to reduce Native American tribes hostile to the British [116]. An outbreak of smallpox at Fort Pitt results in the opportunity to execute Amherst s plan. On June 24, 1763, Captain Ecuyer, Amherst s subordinate, gives blankets and a handkerchief from the smallpox hospital to the Native Americans and records in his journal, I hope it will have the desired effect. This was followed by an epidemic of smallpox among Native American tribes in the Ohio River valley, which may also have been spread by contact with settlers. Transmission of smallpox by fomites (on blankets) is inefficient compared with respiratory droplet transmission. 

Montezuma II (about 1466-1520) drank Xocolatl, [134] a chocolate drink made from cocoa, before he paid coiut to his wives, and Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725-1798) was convinced that chocolate possesses aphrodisiac properties. The Aztecs used vanilla to enhance the aroma of chocolate, centuries before in 1520 the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) tasted it at the court of Montezuma (Fig. 3.31). 

Cocoa was already known in Mexico as early as 1500 BC. Christopher Columbus brought the plant to Europe after his fourth American voyage in 1502, but the drink made from cocoa was first tasted only in 1528 by Spanish conquistador Heman Cortes. Chocolate drink first appeared in Spain in 1544, cocoa trade began between Seville and Veracruz in 1585. Therefore, caffeine in cocoa made its first European appearance before caffeine from coffee or tea did (Fig. 2.35). 

Ghickens were probably domesticated from red junglefowl in Southeast Asia. Genetic studies suggest multiple sites of domestication, including Ghina and India. Archaeological studies indicate that chickens were present in the Americas before the time of the Spanish conquistadores. 

The native peoples of South America used copper tools and weapons long before the European invasion. As early as ad 700 the Chimu on the coast of Peru were making bronze. The great copper and tin deposits of BoHvia were available to the Inca Empire of Peru. Bronze tools were beginning to appear at the time of the invasion by the Spanish Conquistadors. 

Vanilla is an orchid that is indigenous to southeast Mexico and Central America where it grows wild in the moist forests. When the Spanish conquistadors under... 

Coca leaves were brought to Europe by the Spanish conquistadores, and cocaine was isolated from the leaves in the 1860s. In 1863, the French chemist Angelo Mariani created the tonic Vin Mariani , an extract of coca in Bordeaux wine. The non-alcoholic version Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by the American Pharmacist John Pemberton, who mixed extracts of coca leaves and caffeine-containing cola nuts with soda. With the introduction of the first anti-drug laws in the USA in 1906, however, only decocainized leaves were used for the production of Coca-Cola. 

The arrow poisons first encountered by the Spanish Conquistadores were not curares in the modern sense, as the victims usually died in the course of 24 h or more in great pain - effects which are not characteristic of an overdose of muscle-relaxant. These poisons were used in warfare and their active principles were the fruit and latex of certain Euphorbiaceae, e.g. Hippo-mane, Hura. Their effects were probably due to the combined action of highly toxic lectins and irritant diterpene esters. True curares were not prepared by the coastal Indians but rather by the forest Indians for hunting they were rarely used against fellow human beings (see Vellard 1965,1973). 

In the foregoing pages we have followed the story of curare from the early encounters by the Spanish Conquistadores, through its use by the forest tribes in hunting and occasionally in warfare, through the discovery of its plant sources and the isolation and chemistry of its purified active principles, to the introduction of some of them as valuable muscle relaxants in surgery and to their subsequent role as templates leading to the development of improved products. Curare is thus an excellent example of a material that has made the successful transition from an ethnic product to a purified substance essential to the practice of modern medicine. 

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