ABSTRACT
The food color annatto is the extract of the outer layer of the seeds of Bixa orellana, the tropical tree nam ed after the Spanish conquistador Francisco de Orellana, who discovered the Amazon River in 1541 starting his expedi tion from Quito, Ecuador. Patino (1967) provides a complete description of the aboriginal uses of annatto seed. For centuries it was a traditional ingre dient for food preparation and for cosmetic purposes in Central and South America. The natives prepared it by rubbing the seed with oils pressed from other plants. The Aztecs, in what is now Mexico, mixed it with cocoa to give a special taste and a m ore pleasing color to chocolate. A ceremonial drink with annatto resembled hum an blood, and its consum ption became an im portant ritual for the Indians. This was probably also the basis for the cos metic uses of annatto in pre-Spanish Latin America. Painting the hum an body with annatto was usually done by the women on the bodies of male warriors as a symbolic act representing the color of blood. During the Span ish colonization of America this ceremony was banned at times as a pagan ritual. However, the Spaniards also became intensely interested in this color.
