The Economic Botany of Manilkara zapota (L.) Van Royen :: Botany

The Economic Botany of Manilkara zapota (L.) avant-garde Royenthe States is well intimate in the use of a byproduct of the plant Manilkara zapota (L.) Van Royen, yet few people are aware of this products history. Chewing gingiva has its origins in the economic botany of the chicle gingiva tree (M. zapota). Throughout Mexico and key America, the Sapotaceae plant family is recognized for its latex. Manilkara zapota (synonym Achras zapota L.) is an evergreen canopy tree of medium size (15-30 meters in height) native to Central America, which is currently cultivated throughout the tropics of the world (Castner, Timme, & Duke, 1998). The Sapotaceae (Soapberry family) belongs to the Ebenales position along with the Ebenaceae, Styracaceae, Lissocarpacee, and Symplocaceae according to the Cronquist system of plant classification (Jones & Luchsinger, 1986).Historically, M. zapta was an all important(p) source of timber and latex in the new world tropics (Janzen, 1983). The latex is a m ilk-white exudate produced in laticifer canals under the phloem bark surface (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 1995). The latex is known as chicle, which had its highest demand during the refuge nail down of tropical America in the 1800s. When the United States and Great Brittain formal Rubber tree (Hevea spp.) plantations in southeast Asia in 1876, the rubber boom occurred in tropical America. Economies were left helpless and Indian rubber collectors were massacred (Hill, 1996 Stanfield, 1998). The Chicle tree (synonyms Sapodilla, Naseberry, Nispero) was the lone latex plant to economically survive.The Mayan Indians of Mexico and Central America traditionally have chewed the raw chicle latex. Furthermore, Aztec prostitutes loudly snapped their chewing gum to advertise their trade during the height of pre-Columbian Aztec civilization (Plotkin, 1993). This custom was common land to many Mexicans, including an eccentric political leader from Veracruz. He is Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, eleven clock president of Mexico (born 1794, died 1876). His military prowess is capped by success at the battle of the Alamo (1836), where Santa Annas troops killed Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie (Simpson & Ogorzaly, 1995). His eccentric political ways got him exiled to the West Indies. The U. S. writing table of State, William Seward, payed Santa Anna a visit in the West Indies. Assuming he gained Sewards trust, Santa Anna sailed to fresh York in 1866. Santa Annas shipmates stole his money, leaving him stranded in America where Santa Anna was moody away by Secretary of State Seward.The exiled Mexican president was a wise businessman and politician who brought some chicle with him to New York.