Classical Nahuatl name for a plant whose identity is uncertain
Nonochton is the Classical Nahuatl name for a plant whose identity is uncertain. Suggested plants include Portulaca, Pereskiopsis, 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.
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
See also
References
- Nicholson, Rob (1999). "Az-Tech medicine". Natural History. 108 (10): 54–59.
- Lindsay, Robert (23 April 1994). "Aztec fruit reappears in the mountains of Mexico". New Scientist. pp. 66–67.
- Gates, William (2000) . An Aztec Herbal: The Classic Codex of 1552. Dover. p. 47. ISBN 0-486-41130-3.