We love Cocoa! Welcome to the Cocoa section of medicinehunter.com, where you will find lots of fun and interesting information about everybody's favorite medicinal plant.

• Cocoa Botanical Sheet
• Cocoa, The Health Miracle
• A Brief History of Cocoa
• Theobroma Cacao, The Chocolate Tree
• Cocoa and The Creation
• Chocolate: The Love Drug
• Cocoa Expedition Gallery
• Psyche Delicacies a book by Chris Kilham

Did you know that Cocoa is a Medicinal Plant, a Sacred plant, a Hot Plant, and a Psychoactive Plant? Did you know Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) means "Food of the Gods"? Did you know that the Aztecs regarded cocoa as a sacred plant, and they valued cocoa beans as currency? Did you know that Cacao trees bear cocoa pods that jut out directly from the trunk? Did you know that, according to traditional classification, there are three varieties of Theobroma cacao whose beans are used in the making of chocolate? Did you know that chocolates can vary as widely in flavor and aroma as do wines? Did you know, that of all foods known, cocoa has the highest antioxidant polyphenol content, and provides the greatest cardio-protection? Did you know that even small amounts of cocoa can reduce cholesterol in the blood, and can lower blood pressure? There is much to share with you about Cocoa.

Cocoa Botanical Sheet

The rainforest tree from which cocoa originates is Theobroma cacao, which owes its name to the 18th century Swedish scientist Carl von Linne’. The Latin binomial Theobroma cacao means food of the gods. (Read more...)

“Sometime around 1000 B.C. the Maya, whose civilization flourished from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Pacific coast of Guatemala, are believed to have cultivated the cacao tree for the very first time. The Maya so highly valued cacao, they used cocoa beans as currency, and to pay taxes. From the very onset of its use, cocoa was assigned high status.” – Chris Kilham, Fox News

Cocoa, The Health Miracle

Cocoa, one of nature’s many miracles, is in fact the great super-food that many people seek. Cocoa makes other so-called super-fruits pale in comparison. If cocoa were a pharmaceutical drug, it would be hailed as the greatest medicine of all time, and its discoverer would reap the Nobel prize in Medicine. (Read more...)

“Whatever your previous notions of cocoa may have been, you will be surprised by what you learn here. For cocoa, an agent of sensual delight and nourishment since antiquity, is the mightiest of protective, health-imbuing agents. It literally has the power to transform medicine, and to save millions of lives.” – Chris Kilham

A Brief History of Cocoa

Thousands of years ago, dense equatorial rainforest covered much more of the South American continent than today. Verdant forest and running rivers made up the landscape of the territory known as Amazonia, and forest covered much of the corridor of land we now call Central America. In this vibrantly alive landscape, wild cacao flourished. (Read more...)

“Cocoa, the food of the gods and the electuary of lovers, has captivated humanity with its exotic flavor and sensuous mouth feel. Well done, bravo! Cocoa is the heroic delight, the preferred food of children and poets alike. The world would be a poorer place if not for heavenly cocoa!” – Chris Kilham

Theobroma Cacao, The Chocolate Tree

The rainforest tree from which chocolate originates is Theobroma cacao, which owes its name to the 18th century Swedish scientist Carl von Linne’. The Latin binomial Theobroma cacao means food of the gods, as apt a moniker as could possibly be assigned. There is tremendous variation among experts regarding the origins of cocoa. (Read more...)

“Though Theobroma cacao surely originated from South America, the tree is now cultivated in virtually every tropical area in the world. This widespread distribution is testimony to the popularity of the tree and the heavenly fruit from which chocolate is made.” – Chris Kilham

Cocoa and The Creation

In the Mayan culture, cocoa was so highly regarded that the Maya developed a creation myth concerning human beings involving cocoa. Any time a plant is given divine status in a culture, it means that the plant is central to that culture. For the Maya, cocoa was an integral part of the fabric of their lives. (Read more...)

“And so it came to pass that cacao was one of the essential materials used by the god of all gods to create human beings. And as is only right for a plant of such importance to our very being, cacao was held in the utmost esteem from that day onward.” – Chris Kilham

Chocolate: The Love Drug

The rainforest tree from which chocolate derives is Theobroma cacao, named by the 18th century Swedish scientist Carl von Linne’. Botanical experts offer differing opinions regarding the origin of cacao. New genetic testing seems to have settled the matter, pointing to the Orinoco Valley of Venezuela as the first place where the tree grew. (Read more...)

“While there are a great many agents in nature which boost libido and enhance sexual function, chocolate alone actually promotes the brain chemistry of being in love.” – Chris Kilham, Fox News

Medicine Hunter in Cocoa Land

Recently I traveled to the South American country of Ecuador, where I continued a long-time passion, investigating cocoa. This has been a subject of great interest to me, and I wanted to see for myself the legendary cocoa plantations of Esmeraldas Province in Ecuador, where some of the world’s finest cocoa beans originate. (Read more...)

“Cocoa and chocolate have emerged as health superstars. This odd turn of events is of course thrilling to cocoa and chocolate lovers.” – Chris Kilham, Fox News

Cocoa and the Kuna Indians of Panama
Good Morning America, April 2011

Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham shares information on the health benefits of cocoa and the Kuna Indians of Panama, including a rare look at how they harvest and produce cocoa. Harvard researchers have established that the compounds are cocoa responsible for the Kuna people's unusual cardiovascular health. Chris went on an expedition to meet them, see the harvesting of cocoa, see how they make cocoa traditionally—and certainly to drink it cocoa! (Read more...)

“What got me turned onto the Kuna in the first place was twenty years of Harvard University studies showing that the Kuna have among the lowest rates of cardiovascular disease in the world, even though they're poor, have lousy sanitation and hygiene, no access to medicine… and yet, they have this remarkably low incident of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure: and they consume four to five cups of cocoa a piece, every single day. – Chris Kilham, ABC Good Morning America

PSYCHE DELICACIES: Coffee, Chocolate, Chiles, Kava and Cannabis, and Why They’re Good for You

“Chris Kilham offers to jog the mind with good psychoactive plants – a sound prescription. A bit of coffee here, a bit of cannabis there… Agree or disagree with him, Psyche Delicacies will tickle your neurons. A good blend of humor and argonautic escapades.” – Ken Kesey, Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

In this book, globetrotting medicine hunter Chris Kilham presents passionate portraits of five widely used psychoactive plants that, he argues, have affected the course of human history. From the lush coffee orchards of Hawaii's Kona Coast to the cannabis-covered hills of the Indian Himalaya, Kilham takes readers along on a world tour to meet the people and places that make coffee, chocolate, chiles, kava, and cannabis what they are to us today. Employing evocative and sometimes provocative prose to weave history, folklore, and science into a dazzling whole, Kilham presents a mind-expanding case for the enthusiastic, guilt-free use of these much-loved plants and their various preparations.

Few adults haven't partaken of at least one of the featured psyche delicacies, and that's the author's point. Maintaining that we all can benefit from the reverie induced by consuming these mood-altering plants, Kilham presents clinical and academic evidence to handily dispatch the notion that these agents of nature, taken in moderation, are some-how bad for us. Instead, he asserts that they refresh both body and mind, helping us to achieve the very highest order of healthfulness. Whether you are an avid coffee drinker, a hot-chile devotee, a casual cannabis user, or just curious, you'll be surprised and delighted by all you experience when you read Psyche Delicacies.

“In each case, these plants have been praised and excoriated, promoted and banned, embraced and spurned. Across history and time, pleasure seekers and pleasure haters have fought acrimonious battles over friendly, healthful plants that impart benefits to both body and mind, with little risk to health. These benefits explain why these five plants are among the most widely consumed and traded plants in the world. In every case, the plants featured once existed in relative obscurity. But as quickly as they were discovered, they spread like wildfire, from one nation to another, and leaping across oceans. Each plant has undergone a long and extraordinary journey on the backs of millions of human beings and continues to do so at this time. Each is the object of substantial trade, each is the subject of scientific and medical scrutiny, and each produces its own precious reverie.” – Chris Kilham, on the book, Psyche Delicacies

Cocoa (Chocolate) for your Heart
FOX News Health, with Dr. Manny

The Medicine Hunter tells Dr. Manny why eating more chocolate could be good for your heart. In the 1970’s, a number of natural health advocates insisted that cocoa and chocolate were bad for health. As it turned out, those so-called health experts were highly misinformed. Today we are far wiser.

“Cocoa and chocolate have emerged as health superstars. This odd turn of events is of course thrilling to cocoa and chocolate lovers.” - Chris Kilham, Fox News Health