2024-08-02 01:50:46
According to a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the belief that the origin of cocoa is Mexico has been disproved. The research reveals that the true origin of cocoa is in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The first Ecuadorian societies not only cultivated it, but also facilitated the expansion of cocoa through trade routes.
According to a recent study published in the Scientific Reports journalthe belief that the origin of cocoa es Mexico. Research reveals that the true origin of cocoa is found in Ecuador
The study is based on the analysis of remains found in ceramics which are more than 5,000 years old. According to the article, “recent findings document the domestication of cocoa in the Ecuadorian Amazon regionits place of origin, at least 5,300 years ago.”
Early Ecuadorian societies cultivated, domesticated and traded cocoa
According to studies by ADN and analysis of chemical compounds rrelated to cocoa, first Ecuadorian societies Not only did they cultivate it, but they also facilitated its expansion through trade routes after its domestication more than five millennia ago.
«The wide range of ceramic artifacts containing ancient DNA evidence of T. cacao demonstrates the extensive and continued use of both T. cacao and its wild relatives by ancient people living along the Pacific coast of northern South America“, notes the article in the journal Scientific Reports.
Contrary to the belief that Mexico was the place of origin of cocoa, it is shown that this country received cocoa approximately 1,500 years after its domestication in Ecuador (more exactly in the Upper Amazon).
Researchers found traces of cocoa in ceramics suggesting that the use of cocoa-derived products spread across diverse pre-columbian cultures. In particular, the ceramics of the cultures Valdivia in Ecuador y Port Hormiga in Colombia They show the first forms of use of cocoa.
“Traces of the use and domestication of cocoa in South America, dating back 5,300 years, have been documented in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon where one of the three ancestors of another fine-tasting aromatic variety, currently cultivated along the Ecuadorian Pacific coast, the Nacional variety, originated,” explains the Scientific Reports study. (JS)
By: LA HORA Newspaper