LIME-COOKING OF MAIZE, THE AXIS IN THE MESOAMERICAN CULTURE, HAD A PRECEDENT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INSECTS

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a crucial crop for the diets of the Mexican people. In addition, it has divine, mystic, traditional, and poetic connotations. It is, without a doubt, one of the most important contributions from Mexico to the cuisine and nutrition of the world. The creation of maize corn varieties and their derivatives has been a process developed by human beings for millennia. Ethnobotanical and coevolutionary information of maize is only partially known. Among the domestication processes that elude scientific conclusion are place of origin; wild relatives used as the bases for selection and domestication, and the origin of the innovation known as the “nixtamalization” (lime-cooking) of maize grains. Despite the consensus that Mexico and Mesoamerica are the origin and geographic spreading of maize, the specific places and moments remain unknown. Regarding wild relatives, the main hypothesis is that teosinte (Zea spp.) was the plant species acting as a basis for selection and modification until maize, as it is known to date, was obtained. Regarding the invention or the discovery of lime-cooking as the axis of creation and diversification of food products from maize, crucial in the cultural development of Mesoamerica, this elaboration supports the hypothesis that the use of lime to protect maize grains from the attack of pests got to become the lime-cooking process producing the nixtamal. This process is the basis to produce the dough used to make Mexican tortillas, which constitute the most important pillar for the nutrition of Mexican population, and they are the basis of our maize culture.