ABSTRACT
Perhaps comalpatli (comal, cooking disk to prepare tortillas, patl, medicine) is simply another way of saying woman’s medicine, because cooking is traditionally considered the female realm. Probably both ahuapatli [alaa-patli] and nahuapate [nahuapote] are variants of nahuac, of anahuac (Mexico, El Salvador), meaning a medicine growing near water. Both species are most frequent near marshes. Perhaps the modern hoja de la playa (beach leaf) comes from the Nahuatl source.
