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Tropical Plant "Cacao"
Theobroma cacao
Cacao
Description
The
genuine cacao tree is a small and handsome evergreen tree,
growing in South America and the West Indies, from 12 to 25
feet high, and branching at the top; when cultivated it is
not allowed to grow so high. The stem is erect, straight,
4 to 6 feet high; the wood light and white; the bark thin,
somewhat smooth, and brownish. The seeds are numerous, compressed,
1 inch long, reddish-brown externally, dark-brown internally,
and imbedded in a whitish, sweetish, buttery pulp.
Cacao Origin
and Distribution
This
tree was extensively cultivated in Mexico, Central and South
America for many years, indeed long before the discovery of
America, and at one time formed the currency of the natives,
who made an immense consumption of it in various ways. At
present it is chiefly cultivated in Brazil, Costa Rica, Guayaquil,
Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala, the. island of Trinidad,
and most of the other West India Islands; also in Africa,
Ceylon, Samoa, and other parts of the globe. The cocoa or
chocolate nuts of commerce are the seed taken from the fruit
and deprived of a slimy covering. There are many varieties
of this seed brought into the market, named, according to
the place from which they have been imported, e. g., Puerto
Cabello, Cauca, Maracaibo, Caracas, Surinam, Java, Domingo,
Bahia, etc.
Cacao
seeds are prepared for commerce either by simple drying, in
which case they retain their bitterness and astringency; or
they are cured by a sweating process by which their bitter
and astringent properties are much modified, and the color
of the seed changed. The seeds are placed into closed boxes
for a certain length of time, or buried in the ground for
a few days; the best process is to allow the seeds to lie
for a week in heaps covered with green leaves, such as plantain
leaves, etc., after which time they are dried. Also see directions
given by W. Cradwick, of Jamaica, for curing cacao seeds on
a domestic scale, in Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1895, p. 530.
Cacao
Food Value
Cacao
seeds contain fat (40 to 50 per cent) (oil of cacao, cacao
butter; see Oleum Theobromatis), the base theobromine (C7H8N4O2),
small quantities of caffeine (theine), starch (from 1.3 to
7.5 per cent, Ridenour, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1895, p. 209),
a red coloring matter (cacao-red), albuminous matter (6 to
18 per cent), and ash (2 to 4 per cent), etc.
In
18 commercial specimens of cacao, A. Eminger (Forschungsberichte
über Lebensmittel, 1896, p. 275; also see Amer. Jour.
Pharm., 1897, p. 113) found theobromine to vary from 0.88
to 2.34 per cent, caffeine from 0.05 to 0.36 per cent. According
to E. Knebel (1892), the presence of cacao-red is due to the
decomposition of a glucosid under the influence of a diastatic
ferment, resulting in dextrose, cacao-red. theobromine. and
caffeine (compare Kola).
Cacao
Other Uses
CHOCOLATE,
when scraped into a coarse powder, and boiled in milk, or
milk and water, is much used as an occasional substitute for
coffee, and for a drink at meals. It is a very useful nutritive
article of diet for invalids, persons convalescing from acute
diseases, and others with whom its oily constituent does not
disagree, as is apt to be the case with dyspeptics.
BUTTER
OF CACAO is a bland article, rather agreeable to the taste,
and highly nutritious; it has been used as a substitute for,
or an alternate with, cod-liver oil, and as an article of
diet during the last days of pregnancy. It has also been employed
in the formation of suppositories and pessaries, for rectal,
vaginal, and other difficulties (see Suppositories). It likewise
enters into preparations for rough or chafed skin, chapped
lips, sore nipples, various cosmetics, pomatums, and fancy
soaps; and has also been used for coating pills.
Theobromine
when absorbed acts powerfully as a diuretic, and has a stimulant
or exciting action which is not possessed by chocolate itself.
It is, however, quite difficult of absorption, and is without
effect upon the heart and circulation. It enters into the
compound known as Diuretin, which, in certain conditions,
is an active diuretic."
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