Cacao

Theobroma cacao

Also: Cocoa, Chocolate, Cacao nibs

WarmingDryingTonifying

The food of the gods, for a warm heart and a lifted mood.

The fermented, roasted seeds of a small rainforest tree whose pods grow straight from its trunk. Cacao is rich in theobromine, a gentle cousin of caffeine that relaxes and widens blood vessels, and in magnesium and flavanols that support the heart and lift the mood.

Energetics: Warming, drying, toning
Taste: Bitter, rich, aromatic
Family: Malvaceae (mallow family)
Parts used: Seeds (beans), nibs, and butter

Medicinal uses 4

The tags sort the evidence behind each use by kind. Members are able to tap a condition to compare every herb for it.

Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

High blood pressureTLC
Flavanol-rich cocoa relaxed blood vessels and lowered blood pressure slightly in clinical trials.
Heart supportTLC
A warming, vessel-opening heart food, best as dark chocolate or plain cacao.
Low moodTLC
Lifts the spirits and eases anxious, heavy moods.
Depletion & mineral needsTLC
A rich food source of magnesium.

Preparations

Drinking cacao, nibs, and cacao butter for salves.

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Cautions

Theobromine is poisonous to dogs and cats; keep cacao and chocolate out of their reach.
Sugar and milk blunt its benefits, and Dutch-processed (alkalized) cocoa loses much of its flavanol content; choose dark chocolate or plain cacao.
Large amounts can be stimulating, and chocolate triggers migraines or reflux in some people.

Medication interactions

Practitioner Practitioners are able to see the 2 types of medicine flagged for cacao, each with the mechanism and what to do. The plain-language cautions above stay open to everyone.

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyModerate amounts

Moderate amounts are considered compatible; count cacao, with tea and coffee, toward a total of no more than 200 mg of caffeine a day.

BreastfeedingModerate amounts

Moderate amounts are considered compatible; large amounts of theobromine can make a nursing baby jittery.

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Folklore

Linnaeus named the tree Theobroma, food of the gods. The Olmec and Maya drank frothed cacao spiced with chili, and the Aztecs used the beans as money. Spain kept chocolate drinking largely to itself for the better part of a century before it spread through Europe's courts in the 1600s. The tiny flowers sprout straight from the trunk and are pollinated mostly by biting midges no bigger than a pinhead.

How to grow

An understory tree of hot, humid rainforest, grown in the shade of taller trees within about 20 degrees of the equator. The beans and their sweet white pulp ferment for about a week after the pods are split, which develops the chocolate flavor, and are then dried.

In the wild

Native to the upper Amazon, where wild cacao still grows in the forests of Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. Most of the world's crop now comes from Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

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