ABSTRACT
The tribes living in the northern regions of vanilla’s natural range were the rst to incorporate vanilla into their lives, perhaps as early as 2000-2500 years before the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in 1520. From Central Mexico to Costa Rica, there was a passion for pungent, aromatic fragrances. Vanilla had sacred and religious connotations as did corn and cacao. These were gifts bestowed upon them by the gods and were treated with reverence. Corn provided nourishment, cacao was a ceremonial drink, and vanilla was a fragrant incense. Vanilla beans were ground and mixed with copal (a dried resin from the Copalli tree with a pleasing pine-like odor) to perfume their temples. The native peoples were highly knowledgeable about the medicinal use of herbs, and may well have used ground vanilla bean for lung and stomach disorders as well as used the liquid from green beans as a poultice for drawing out insect venom and infections from wounds. Their medicinal skills far surpassed those of the Europeans at the time of their arrival in Mexico in the sixteenth century. While vanilla taken to Spain in the early 1500s was valued as a commodity, for the tribal peoples of the Americas vanilla was reverently considered as a sacramental herb.
