Nonochton

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

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]

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. pp. 47. ISBN 0-486-41130-3.