Hoja santa

taxobox
name = Hoja santa

---

regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Magnoliids
ordo = Piperales
familia = Piperaceae
genus = "Piper"
species = "P. auritum"
binomial = "Piper auritum"
binomial_authority = Kunth
synonyms = "Piper sanctum"cite web | title = Sorting Piper names | url = http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Piper.html | first = Prof. Snow | last = Barlow | publisher = University of Melbourne | year = 2003 | accessdate = 2007-03-29 ] |

Hoja santa ("Piper auritum") is an aromatic herb with a heart-shaped, velvety leaf which grows in tropic Mesoamerica. The name "hoja santa" means "sacred leaf" in Spanish. A Mexican legend says that Virgin Mary dried diapers of the infant Jesus on the bush of this plant, hence the name.cite book | title = Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined | first = Zarela | last = Martínez | pages = p. 8-9 | isbn = 0028603613 | publisher =Wiley | year = 1995] It is also known as yerba santa,cite book | title = Coyote's Pantry: Southwest Seasonings and at Home Flavoring Techniques | first = Mark Charles | last = Miller | publisher = Ten Speed Press | year = 1993 | isbn = 0898154944 | pages= p. 70] hierba santa, Mexican pepperleaf, root beer plant, and sacred pepper.

Description

The leaves can reach up to convert|30|cm|sp=us or more in size. The complex flavor of hoja santa is not so easily described; it has been compared to eucalyptus,cite news | url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8352-2004Aug17.html | title = Ingredient - Hoja Santa | date = 2004-08-18 | accessdate = 2007-03-29 | publisher = The Washington Post ] [cite book| title = New Tastes from Texas | first = Stephan | last = Pyles | publisher = Three Rivers Press | pages = p. 214 | isbn = 0609804979 | year = 1999 ] licorice,cite book | last= Rolland |first= Jacques L. | title= The Food Encyclopedia: Over 8,000 Ingredients, Tools, Techniques and People | publisher=Robert Rose | year=2006 | isbn= 0778801500 | pages= p. 326] [cite book | title = Steven Raichlen's Healthy Latin Cooking: 200 Sizzling Recipes from Mexico, Cuba, Caribbean, Brazil, and Beyond | first = Steven | last= Raichlen |authorlink= Steven Raichlen| publisher = Rodale Books | year = 2000 | isbn = 0875964982 | pages= p. 26] sassafras, anise,cite book | author=Davidson, Alan | title= The Oxford Companion to Food | publisher = Oxford University Press | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-19-211579-0 | pages= p. 383] nutmeg, mint, [cite book | title = Contemporary Southwest: The Cafe Terra Cotta Cookbook | first = Donna | last = Nordin | pages = p. 19 | publisher = Ten Speed Press | isbn = 1580081800 | year = 2001] tarragon, and black pepper.cite web | url = http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Pipe_aur.html | first = Gernot |last = Katzer| title = Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages - Mexican Pepperleaf ("Piper auritum" Kunth) | year = 2000 | accessdate = 2007-03-29] The flavor is stronger in the young stems and veins.

Usage

It is often used in Mexican cuisine for tamales, the fish or meat wrapped in fragrant leaves for cooking, and as an essential ingredient in Mole Verde, the green sauce originated in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. It is also chopped to flavor soups and eggs.cite book | title = The Edible Mexican Garden | first = Rosalind | last = Creasy | publisher = Tuttle Publishing | year = 2000 | pages = p. 35| isbn = 9625932976] In Central Mexico, it is used to flavor chocolate drinks. In southeastern Mexico, a green liquor called Verdín is made from hoja santa. [cite web | url = http://www.restmex.com/recipes/0603.shtml | title = El Restaurante Mexicano (May/June 2006): Beyond margaritas | year = 2006 | publisher = Maiden Name Press LLC | first = Lori | last = Conner | accessdate = 2007-04-01] American cheesemaker Paula Lambert created "Hoja santa cheese", the goat's milk cheese wrapped with the hoja santa leaves and impregnated with its flavor.cite book | title = The Cheese Lover's Cookbook and Guide: Over 150 Recipes with Instructions on How to Buy, Store, and Serve All Your Favorite Cheeses | first = Paula | last = Lambert |authorlink = Paula Lambert | publisher = Simon & Schuster | isbn = 0684863189 | year = 2000 | pages = p. 43] cite web | url = http://www.orlandoweekly.com/util/printready.asp?id=11021 | title = Craft, not Kraft, is the key to these homeland treats | first = Adrian J.S. | last = Hale | accessdate = 2007-03-29 | publisher = Orlando Weekly | date = 2006-09-28 ] While typically used fresh, it is also used in dried form, although drying removes much of the flavor and makes the leaf too brittle to be used as a wrapper. [cite book | title = Latin & Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified | first = Linda | last = Bladholm | pages = p. 106 | publisher = Renaissance Books | isbn = 1580632122 | year = 2001]

The essential oils in the leaf are rich in safrole, a substance also found in sassafras, which has been shown to be carcinogenic in animals. In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned sassafras bark along with sassafras oil and safrole as flavoring agents because of their carcinogenic properties and the Council of Europe imposed the same ban in 1974, [cite book | title = Food Flavors: Formation, Analysis and Packaging Influences (Developments in Food Science) | first = E.T. (Ed.)| last = Contis | publisher = Elsevier | isbn = 0444825908 | year = 1998 | pages = p. 403] although toxicological studies show that humans do not process safrole into its carcinogenic metabolite. [Toxicology 1977 Feb;7(1):69-83 Absorption, metabolism and excretion of safrole in the rat and man. Benedetti MS, Malnoe A, Broillet AL. "The main urinary metabolite in both species was 1,2-dihydroxy-4-allylbenzene which was excreted in a conjugated form. Small amounts of eugenol or its isomer 1-methoxy-2-hydroxy-4-allylbenzene were also detected in rat and man. 1'-Hydroxysafrole, a proximate carcinogen of safrole, and 3'-hydroxyisosafrole were detected as conjugates in the urine of the rat. However, in these investigations we were unable to demonstrate the presence of the latter metabolites in man."]

Notes