Sin and pleasure: the history of chocolate in medicine

In ancient Mayan texts cocoa is considered a gift of the gods: Pre-Columbian populations used chocolate as medicine, too. After the discovery of America, chocolate was introduced in Europe, but Christian Europe looked to this new exhilarating drink with extreme suspiciousness and criticism. From this reaction, the necessity derived to appeal to the reasons of health, with which doctors and scientists committed themselves to explain that chocolate was good for the body. However, during the Enlightment, the road of therapy separated from that of taste, and chocolate mainly maintained its leading role of excipient, bearing the burden, over time, of a negative valence, being associated with obesity, dental problems, unhealthy lifestyle, and so forth. The rehabilitation of chocolate has arisen only in recent times, re-establishing that value that Linnaeus himself credited to chocolate, calling the generous plant Theobroma cacao, food of the gods.

[Louis-Marie Rousseau and the "Chocolat rationnel des pharmaciens français" (Rational Chocolate of French pharmacists)]

In 1883, the chemist Louis-Marie Rousseau (1849-1930) creats the "Compagnie hygiénique française" (French Hygienic Company). The company manufactures and sells the "Poudre de viande Rousseau" (Rousseau meat powder) and the "Chocolat Rousseau" (Rousseau Chocolate) by methods developed and patented by the pharmacist. Ten years after a successful collaboration, L.-M. Rousseau separates from his associates and founds the "Chocolaterie spéciale d'Ermont" (Special Chocolate factory of Ermont) in the village of Ermont near Paris. Here is manufactured the "Chocolat Rationnel des pharmaciens français" (Rational Chocolate of French pharmacists), hygienic chocolate sold only in pharmacies. The factory is also a pharmaceutical laboratory where is extracted theobromine from waste vegetable substances of cocoa. It then produces the "Théobromine Rousseau cristallisée" (crystallized Rousseau's Theobromine) sold as tablets, then the "Théosol" that will be commercialized until the middle of 1930s.

The history and science of chocolate

This article gives an account of the origins, evolution and properties of chocolate. Chocolate is processed from the pod or cabosside of the cacao plant, grown in the tropical belt. The origins of chocolate are traced back to the Maya people who were probably the first to cultivate the cacao plant. The early chocolate drink, considered a "drink of the Gods" was mixed with cinnamon and pepper, tasting bitter and strong, and was most appreciated for its invigorating and stimulating effects than for its taste. Imported from the Americas, the softened version soon spread in Europe. From the 1800s to the 20th Century, it evolved from a drink to its current pleasurable varieties (such as fondant, Gianduja, milky and white chocolate), gaining much momentum in industry and also made great impact as a romantic item and art form. Important components in chocolate are flavonoids (antioxidants), cocoa butter, caffeine, theobromine and phenylethylamine, whereas the presence of psychoactive substances account for its pleasurable effects. Caffeine, theophylline and theobromine constitutes the methylxanthines, known to enhance the action of cAMP, which plays an important role in the transmission of intracellular signals. Chocolate is noted to have anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and cardioprotective effects, and improves the bioavailability of nitric oxide, which action improves the pressure, platelet function and fluidity of blood.

Cocoa and heart health: a historical review of the science

The medicinal use of cocoa has a long history dating back almost five hundred years when Hernán Cortés’s first experienced the drink in Mesoamerica. Doctors in Europe recommended the beverage to patients in the 1700s, and later American physicians followed suit and prescribed the drink in early America―ca. 1800s. This article delineates the historic trajectory of cocoa consumption, the linkage between cocoa’s bioactive-mechanistic properties, paying special attention to nitric oxides role in vasodilation of the arteries, to the current indicators purporting the benefits of cocoa and cardiovascular health.

Insight into the wild origin, migration and domestication history of the fine flavour Nacional Theobroma cacao L. variety from Ecuador

Ecuador's economic history has been closely linked to Theobroma cacao L cultivation, and specifically to the native fine flavour Nacional cocoa variety. The original Nacional cocoa trees are presently in danger of extinction due to foreign germplasm introductions. In a previous work, a few non-introgressed Nacional types were identified as potential founders of the modern Ecuadorian cocoa population, but so far their origin could not be formally identified. In order to determine the putative centre of origin of Nacional and trace its domestication history, we used 80 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to analyse the relationships between these potential Nacional founders and 169 wild and cultivated cocoa accessions from South and Central America. The highest genetic similarity was observed between the Nacional pool and some wild genotypes from the southern Amazonian region of Ecuador, sampled along the Yacuambi, Nangaritza and Zamora rivers in Zamora Chinchipe province. This result was confirmed by a parentage analysis. Based on our results and on data about pre-Columbian civilization and Spanish colonization history of Ecuador, we determined, for the first time, the possible centre of origin and migration events of the Nacional variety from the Amazonian area until its arrival in the coastal provinces. As large unexplored forest areas still exist in the southern part of the Ecuadorian Amazonian region, our findings could provide clues as to where precious new genetic resources could be collected, and subsequently used to improve the flavour and disease resistance of modern Ecuadorian cocoa varieties.

Discovering terroir in the world of chocolate

The author investigates the applicability of the word “terroir” to chocolate. As a Master of Wine, wine journalist, and wine educator, the author has tried to understand how “terroir,” the environmental and human factors associated with growing vines and making wine, impacts the flavor of wine. Comparing and contrasting viticulture and winemaking to cacao farming and chocolate manufacture, the author analyzes to what degree terroir could be a concept that informs chocolate appreciation. He notes that the great distances between cacao farms and factories encourage the perception of cacao and chocolate as commodities. He observes that the varietal and origin nomenclature of cacao can be at worst misleading and generally lacks clarity and precision. He shows how the many steps that transform cacao into chocolate threaten the expression of terroir in the final product. Yet he acknowledges that there could be a basis for use of the word in the world of cacao and chocolate.

Notes on the history of caffeine use

As behooves something so deeply entrenched in culture, the historical origins of the use of methylxanthines are unknown and dressed in myth. This is true for coffee as well as tea, and for both it is interesting to note that their common use is really very recent. For coffee we know that its use became more widespread in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and in Europe this occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The use of tea became more common during the Ming Dynasty in China and during the eighteenth century in Britain. Coffee was mostly an upper-class drink in Arabia, and remained a relative luxury in Europe until quite recently. The use of other methylxanthine-containing beverages, such as maté, is even less well known. It is interesting to note that before these drinks were commonly used on a daily basis they were used for medicinal purposes, indicating that their pharmacological actions had long been noted.

[The pharmacist Ludovic Dardenne and his chocolate hundred-years-old]

Launched in 1910, the brand "Yo-Yo" made the fame of the chocolate factory of the pharmacist Ludovic Dardenne for Luchon. It was then replaced by a "chocolate of regime" still marketed nowadays. The authors present three elements susceptible to inform this transformation: the first presentation of the chocolate Yo-Yo, its patent of manufacturing such as it was registred in 1911, and two typographic patches praising the merits of the chocolate of regime in the 60's.

Colonial foresters versus agriculturalists: the debate over climate change and cocoa production in the Gold Coast

This article draws attention to the unfolding debate concerning forest cover loss, climatic change, and declining cocoa production in the Gold Coast (colonial Ghana) during the early twentieth century. It argues that, although desiccationist theory was prevalent, its acceptance among colonial authorities in the Gold Coast was far from hegemonic. There were important dissenting colonial voices, particularly among agriculturalists, who argued that declining cocoa yields were due to plant diseases, most notably cocoa swollen shoot disease. It was based on the latter's non-environmental model of disease transmission, rather than the premises of desiccation science, that the government's postwar "cutting out campaign" of cocoa was predicated. Nevertheless, the foresters' correlation of the deterioration of cocoa areas with fears of desiccation was not without its effects on state practice, providing the rationale for an accelerated program of forest reservations in the 1930s.

Poetry or pathology? Jesuit hypochondria in early modern Naples

In their didactic poems on fishing and chocolate, both published in 1689, two Neapolitan Jesuits digressed to record and lament a devastating 'plague' of 'hypochondria'. The poetic plagues of Niccolò Giannettasio and Tommaso Strozzi have literary precedents in Lucretius, Vergil, and Fracastoro, but it will be argued that they also have a real, contemporary significance. Hypochondria was considered to be a serious (and epidemic) illness in the seventeenth century, with symptoms ranging from depression to delusions. Not only did our Jesuit poets claim to have suffered from it, but so did prominent members of the 'Accademia degl'Investiganti', a scientific society in Naples that was at odds with both the religious and medical establishments.

[Chocolate in some french pharmaceutical or medicinal books from XVIIth, XVIIIth and XIXth centuries. Its beneficent and inconvenient, proved or imaginary, effects]

Rapidly after its appearance in France, interesting properties were attributed to chocolate and it was used in medicine,often wrongly, to treat digestive, pulmonary, nervous, even infectious diseases, and also for its nutritive and aphrodisiacal capability... But it was already charged with insomnia or constipation. During the XIXth century, chocolate was used as food and as an excipient for dissimulation and transportation of drugs. Medicinal chocolates were essentially nutritive and analeptic, pectoral, stomachic, purgative or anthelmintic. All of them have disappeared today, but the pharmacological interest of chocolate remains with its antidepressive activity and the promising proposes of some of its components. However, chocolate is still considered to be responsible of constipation, headache or pimples...

Cacao usage by the earliest Maya civilization

The Maya archaeological site at Colha in northern Belize, Central America, has yielded several spouted ceramic vessels that contain residues from the preparation of food and beverages. Here we analyse dry residue samples by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to atmospheric-pressure chemical-ionization mass spectrometry, and show that chocolate (Theobroma cacao) was consumed by the Preclassic Maya as early as 600 bc, pushing back the earliest chemical evidence of cacao use by some 1,000 years. Our application of this new and highly sensitive analytical technique could be extended to the identification of other ancient foods and beverages.

Maternal dietary advice as an artifact of time and culture: post-World War II Queensland, Australia

Dietary advice to breastfeeding mothers in post-World War II Queensland, 1945-1965, was not evidence-based, but based on cultural beliefs. Diet-based recommendations for boosting the breastmilk yield included increased intake of milk and protein foods, food supplements, especially chocolate-flavoured supplements, and tablets. Although community beliefs about foods to be avoided during lactation were reflected in informal advice, foods such as green leafy vegetables were specifically recommended by the print materials of the period as part of a healthy diet during breastfeeding.

Colonial government, social conflict and state involvement in Africa's open economies: the origins of the Ghana cocoa marketing board, 1939-46

State-controlled cocoa marketing was introduced in the Gold Coast during the Second World War and has had lasting impact. Most accounts of this change have emphasized the influence of metropolitan interests and ideas more conducive to state involvement in colonial economies. Although they explain the new found metropolitan willingness to ‘supply’ financial and administrative backing for state-controlled economic institutions, they neglect the sources of the Gold Coast government’s ‘demand’ for those institutions. I argue that pressures on the government to mitigate domestic social conflict caused by volatility in the world economy are crucial to understanding the shift to controlled cocoa marketing.

Food of the gods: cure for humanity? A cultural history of the medicinal and ritual use of chocolate

The medicinal use of cacao, or chocolate, both as a primary remedy and as a vehicle to deliver other medicines, originated in the New World and diffused to Europe in the mid 1500s. These practices originated among the Olmec, Maya and Mexica (Aztec). The word cacao is derived from Olmec and the subsequent Mayan languages (kakaw); the chocolate-related term cacahuatl is Nahuatl (Aztec language), derived from Olmec/Mayan etymology. Early colonial era documents included instructions for the medicinal use of cacao. The Badianus Codex (1552) noted the use of cacao flowers to treat fatigue, whereas the Florentine Codex (1590) offered a prescription of cacao beans, maize and the herb tlacoxochitl (Calliandra anomala) to alleviate fever and panting of breath and to treat the faint of heart. Subsequent 16th to early 20th century manuscripts produced in Europe and New Spain revealed >100 medicinal uses for cacao/chocolate. Three consistent roles can be identified: 1) to treat emaciated patients to gain weight; 2) to stimulate nervous systems of apathetic, exhausted or feeble patients; and 3) to improve digestion and elimination where cacao/chocolate countered the effects of stagnant or weak stomachs, stimulated kidneys and improved bowel function. Additional medical complaints treated with chocolate/cacao have included anemia, poor appetite, mental fatigue, poor breast milk production, consumption/tuberculosis, fever, gout, kidney stones, reduced longevity and poor sexual appetite/low virility. Chocolate paste was a medium used to administer drugs and to counter the taste of bitter pharmacological additives. In addition to cacao beans, preparations of cacao bark, oil (cacao butter), leaves and flowers have been used to treat burns, bowel dysfunction, cuts and skin irritations.