Chocolate: the origins of delicacy pushed back in time

Chocolate has been a delicacy for much longer than expected.

Botanical evidence shows that the plant from which chocolate is made was first grown more than 5,000 years ago in the Amazon rainforest.

The chemical residues found on ancient pottery suggest that cocoa was used as food, drink or medicine by indigenous peoples living in what is now Ecuador.

Until now, it was thought that chocolate was sourced much later and in Central America rather than in South America.

"The plant was used for the first time at least 1,500 years earlier than we had before," said Professor Michael Blake of the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. -searcher.

"And this previous evidence has been discovered in Mexico and Central America."

Facts about cocoa

• Grows naturally in tropical rainforests and is native to Mexico, Central and North America South America

• The fruit – the cocoa pod – contains seeds surrounded by a white pulp. When the seeds are sun-dried they turn brownish and are called cocoa beans.

• The ingredients of chocolate – cocoa powder and cocoa butter – are prepared from fermented and roasted cocoa beans.

• Cocoa products are also widely used in pharmaceutical preparations and skincare products

• In 2008-2009, world cocoa production was 3,515,000 tonnes.

Source: Theobroma cacao L. – The World's Plants Online – Kew Science.

The researchers analyzed the pottery vessels at the archaeological site of Santa Ana (La Florida) in the highlands of Ecuador, which was occupied between 5,300 and 2,100 years ago.

A number of crops have been identified including maize, sweet potato and cocoa Theobroma cacao.

Traces of chemicals and DNA from the plant were found on the pottery, suggesting that the ground seeds of the cocoa pod were mixed and drunk.

The study corroborates DNA data indicating the origin of the tree in the upper Amazon region, northwestern South America, where the crop national also came into being.

"This is another gift from Amazonians to the world," said Professor Blake. "This highlights the importance of protecting this habitat."

Cocoa seedlings or seeds are thought to have been moved northward to Mexico and Central America, possibly by sea.

Cocoa beans have become valuable goods, used as food and drink by the rich, or exchanged for other foods.

The Spanish explorers of the 1520s took cocoa beans home and spread this delicacy throughout Europe.

The research is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Follow Helen on Twitter.