Piper auritum is an aromatic culinary
herb in the pepper family
Piperaceae, which grows in tropical
Central America. Common names include hoja santa (
Spanish for 'sacred leaf'),[2]yerba santa,[3][4]hierba santa,[3]Mexican pepperleaf,[4]acuyo,[4]tlanepa,[4]anisillo,[4]root beer plant,[2]Vera Cruz pepper[5] and sacred pepper.[1]
It is native to the Americas, from northern South America to Mexico, and is also cultivated in California and southeast Florida.
Use
It is often used in
Mexican cuisine in
tamales, fish or meat wrapped in its fragrant leaves for cooking, and as an essential ingredient in
mole verde, a green sauce originally from the
Oaxaca region of Mexico.[3] It is also used to flavor eggs and soups like
pozole.[13] In Central Mexico, it is used to flavor
chocolate drinks.[4] In southeastern Mexico, a green
liquor called verdín is made from hoja santa.[14]
While typically used fresh, it is also used dried, although the drying process removes much of the flavor and makes the leaf too brittle to be used as a wrapper.[15]
Chemistry / constituents
The leaf oil of Piper auritum contains a relatively high concentration of hepatotoxic
safrole, around 70%. A few of the other 40 constituents occurring in minor quantities were
α-thujene,
α-pinene,
camphene,
β-pinene,
myrcene, and
limonene.[16]
^USDA, NRCS (n.d.).
"Piper auritum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
^Gupta, Mahabir P.; Arias, Tomás D.; Williams, Norris H.; Bos, R.; Tattje, D. H. E. (March 1985). "Safrole, the Main Component of the Essential Oil from Piper auritum of Panama". Journal of Natural Products. 48 (2): 330–330.
doi:
10.1021/np50038a026.