Nonochton

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]

Illustration of nonochton from the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (1552).

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, 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 (April 23, 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. p. 47. ISBN 0-486-41130-3.
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