Biology:Nonochton

From HandWiki
Short description: Classical Nahuatl name for a plant whose identity is uncertain
Illustration of nonochton from the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (1552).

Nonochton is the Classical Nahuatl name for a plant whose identity is uncertain. Suggested plants include Portulaca, Pereskiopsis,[1] and Lycianthes mociniana, a plant now called tlanochtle in the local variety of modern Nahuatl spoken by highland farmers that cultivate it for its fruit.[2]

Medicinal uses

In Aztec medicine, nonochton was used as an ingredient in a remedy for pain at the heart:

For him whose heart pains him or burns, take the plant nonochton that grows near an ants’ nest, gold, electrum, teo-xihuitl, chichiltic tapachtli and tetlahuitl,[what language is this?] with the burned heart of a deer, and grind them up together in water; let him drink the liquor.
Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (1552), translated by William Gates[3]

See also

  • Aztec entheogenic complex

References

  1. Nicholson, Rob (1999). "Az-Tech medicine". Natural History 108 (10): 54–59. 
  2. Lindsay, Robert (23 April 1994). "Aztec fruit reappears in the mountains of Mexico". New Scientist: pp. 66–67. 
  3. Gates, William (2000) [1939]. An Aztec Herbal: The Classic Codex of 1552. Dover. pp. 47. ISBN 0-486-41130-3.