epazotl

The Nahuatl epazotl (sometimes spelled epazōtl) is a compound of epatl (skunk) and tzotl (sweat or dirt) — literally 'skunk sweat' or 'skunk dirt,' a reference to the herb's powerful, pungent, distinctive aroma. The plant is Dysphania ambrosioides (formerly Chenopodium ambrosioides), an annual herb native to Mexico and Central America that grows as a weed in disturbed soil throughout Mesoamerica and has naturalized in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Its flavor profile is striking and divisive: intense, resinous, somewhat reminiscent of petroleum or turpentine, with undertones of oregano, citrus, and something medicinal. The smell of the fresh herb is powerful enough to fill a kitchen. Dried, it moderates significantly.

Epazote has been used in Mexican and Mesoamerican cooking for at least two thousand years, with archaeological evidence of its use at pre-Columbian sites. Its primary culinary role is in bean cookery: added to black beans during the long cooking process, epazote is credited with reducing the flatulence-producing oligosaccharides in beans — a function that is partly supported by modern food chemistry research, which has found that certain volatile compounds in epazote may affect the fermentation of indigestible sugars. Whether the effect is physiologically significant or primarily cultural is debated, but the pairing of epazote with beans is as culturally fixed in Mexican cooking as bay leaf with European stocks. The herb is also used in quesillo, quesadillas, corn soup, mushroom dishes, and the Oaxacan black beans (frijoles negros de Oaxaca) that are among Mexico's most distinctive regional dishes.

The plant's medicinal history is at least as significant as its culinary one. Epazote was used extensively in Aztec and later colonial Mexican herbal medicine as a treatment for intestinal parasites — its essential oil, particularly a compound called ascaridole, is toxic to roundworms, hookworms, and other intestinal parasites at sufficient concentrations. Colonial-era physicians adopted the herb into New World medical practice, and it was eventually introduced to Europe's pharmacopoeias under the Latin name Chenopodium anthelminticum (helminth-killer). The United States Pharmacopeia listed 'oil of chenopodium' as an approved anthelmintic (anti-worm) drug from the late nineteenth century until the 1940s, when synthetic alternatives proved safer and more reliable. The Nahuatl herb was, for several decades, an official pharmaceutical ingredient in American medicine.

Today epazote is used primarily in Mexican and Central American cooking, available fresh and dried in Mexican and Latin American markets and increasingly in specialty grocery stores globally. The herb's medicinal use as an anthelmintic has largely been replaced by safer synthetic drugs, though it remains used in traditional herbal medicine in rural Mexico and Central America. Epazote has also naturalized in India, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa, where it arrived as an accidental weed and has been adopted into local cooking and medicine. The plant has one of the most successful weed careers in history, spreading from its Mesoamerican origin to tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, carrying its Nahuatl name's skunk-sweat identity into dozens of new food cultures.