The antibacterial properties of an aztec wound remedy

Davidson, Judith; Montellano, Bernard R. Ortiz de

doi:10.1016/0378-8741(83)90051-x

Cited by 30 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Study participants used these ideas to explain the causes of, and appropriate responses to, certain health conditions and symptoms (cf. [ 25 , 28 , 29 , 38 , 39 , 68 ]). These ideas appear to be related to health practices and disease/illness concepts that existed in pre-Conquest or Conquest eras in both Central and South America.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like the Mayans, the Aztecs used salt as an element in healing. Salt was combined with concentrated maguey syrup (agave) to prevent infection in wounds, a practice later examined and claimed to be effective [ 29 ]. Historians suggest that the Aztecs had a view of causes and cures for disease that included supernatural (religious, magical) and natural (physical) elements ([ 18 ], p. 3).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

Barker

Guerra

Gonzalez-Vargas

et al. 2017

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

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BackgroundThis article reports on the use of domestic or table salt for its perceived health effects and healing properties in a Latino farmworker community. It explores how contemporary salt usage beliefs can be seen to have roots in long-standing humoral theories of medicine and health.MethodsThis qualitative investigation comprised 30 in-depth individual interviews and five focus groups conducted in Spanish with Mexican and Central American immigrants in one small city in California’s Central Valley (N = 61 total participants). Interviews and focus groups were audiotaped, translated into English and transcribed. Several researchers independently and iteratively read transcripts, developed and applied codes, and engaged in thematic analysis.ResultsStrongly emergent themes identified the importance of balance in health, and beliefs about the effects on salt on health. Valued for its culinary role, for bringing out the flavors in food, and used by people of all ages, salt use is part of a robust set of cultural practices. Salt was regularly mixed with foods in different combinations and ingested to restore balance, prevent disequilibrium or reduce vulnerability to diverse illnesses, promote rehydration, and address symptoms of exposure to extremes of temperature or physical or emotional stress. Statements made and practices engaged in by participants were highly suggestive of health and healing beliefs common to humoral belief systems based primarily on a hot-cold dichotomy in classifications of foods and healing behaviors. We evaluate these statements and practices in the context of the existing literature on historical and contemporary humoral beliefs in Latin American communities, in Mexico and Central America, and in the United States.ConclusionHumoral theory is a useful framework for understanding contemporary rural Latino migrant farmworkers’ perceptions of the importance of salt for their health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

Barker

Guerra

Gonzalez-Vargas

et al. 2017

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As an example, this type of research has demonstrated that many of the medicinal plants of the ancient Aztecs (Ortiz de Montellano 1975;Davidson and Ortiz de Montellano 1983;Browner, Ortiz de Montellano and Rubel 1988) as well as those used in an indigenous community in southern Mexico contain chemicals ". .…”

Section: Laboratory Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The efficacy of Ethnomedicine: Research methods in trouble

Anderson

1991

Medical Anthropology

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One of the tasks of medical anthropology is to conduct research to evaluate the efficacy of traditional health care practices. The benefits of health care may be evaluated in numerous ways, but in this article we examine only the problem of how to determine whether a therapeutic intervention changes the pathophysiology of a disease. The randomized controlled trial is acknowledged as an ideal that will rarely be attainable by medical ethnographers. Individual case studies are primarily useful for hypothesis formation. We are left then with observational studies (case series) as a feasible and useful alternative. Those presently in the anthropological literature are examined and each is found to be flawed to some extent. Future investigations can profit from what was learned in these pioneer studies by giving more attention to patient selection, treatment description, and objective measures of outcome.

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“…The use of food additives for adulteration or mixing agave syrup with starch, molasses, glucose, dextrin, fructose, or other sugars from sources other than agave plants are not permitted in commercial agave syrup production (Ramos, 2009). Agave syrups are in great demand as sugar substitutes because of their low glycaemic index (Foster-Powell, Holt, & Brand-Miller, 2002), antioxidant capacity (Phillips, Carlsen, & Blomhoff, 2009), and antibacterial properties (Davidson & Ortiz de Montellano, 1983). The popularity of agave syrups has led to the development of new strategies seeking to optimise agave syrup production by elaborating the syrups via the enzymatic hydrolysis of agave fructans instead of the traditional methods based on thermal or acid hydrolysis (García-Aguirre et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification, classification, and discrimination of agave syrups from natural sweeteners by infrared spectroscopy and HPAEC-PAD

Mellado-Mojica

López

2015

Food Chemistry

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Agave syrups are gaining popularity as new natural sweeteners. Identification, classification and discrimination by infrared spectroscopy coupled to chemometrics (NIR-MIR-SIMCA-PCA) and HPAEC-PAD of agave syrups from natural sweeteners were achieved. MIR-SIMCA-PCA allowed us to classify the natural sweeteners according to their natural source. Natural syrups exhibited differences in the MIR spectra region 1500-900 cm(-1). The agave syrups displayed strong absorption in the MIR spectra region 1061-1,063 cm(-1), in agreement with their high fructose content. Additionally, MIR-SIMCA-PCA allowed us to differentiate among syrups from different Agave species (Agavetequilana and Agavesalmiana). Thin-layer chromatography and HPAEC-PAD revealed glucose, fructose, and sucrose as the principal carbohydrates in all of the syrups. Oligosaccharide profiles showed that A. tequilana syrups are mainly composed of fructose (>60%) and fructooligosaccharides, while A. salmiana syrups contain more sucrose (28-32%). We conclude that MIR-SIMCA-PCA and HPAEC-PAD can be used to unequivocally identify and classified agave syrups.

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The antibacterial properties of an aztec wound remedy

Cited by 30 publications

References 12 publications

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California’s Central Valley

The efficacy of Ethnomedicine: Research methods in trouble

Identification, classification, and discrimination of agave syrups from natural sweeteners by infrared spectroscopy and HPAEC-PAD

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