Achiote, the bixa: an American pigment that Oviedo gave a chapter and the world now eats

Oviedo gave the shrub a chapter: a plant as tall as a man and a half whose husks hold red grains the Indians worked into balls to paint face and body, and which they stirred into ground cacao so the drink turned red. A century later a Madrid printing prescribed it on the authority of "los Medicos en las Indias". It is now annatto, E160b. The chronicler's contempt is quoted here beside his description.