Ilex paraguariensis

Ilex Paraguariensis, yerba mate, yerba de los Jesuitas or yerba del Paraguay (in Guarani: ka'a), is a neotropical tree species native to South America that is present in the Atlantic Forest region of Argentina Paraguay and Brazil, as well as in the wooded mountains of Uruguay, where it grows in the wild, especially as part of the understory or middle layer of the mountains.

Mate is prepared from the dried and ground leaves and branches of this aquifoliácea, an infusion native to its natural growth area (the Paraná jungle) and common in the gastronomy of Argentina, southern Brazil, southern and eastern Paraguay of Bolivia, Uruguay and certain regions of central-southern Chile. In turn, the term mate, poro or porongo is given to the "calabacita" which traditionally serves as a container to drink the infusion.

It is widely cultivated commercially in Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina (in order of total production) since the XIX century, giving rise to an important industry.

Scientific name

The scientific name is Ilex paraguariensis. "Ilex" because it is a genus with about 400 accepted species, and "paraguariensis" due to the then called "Paraguaria Province", belonging to the Viceroyalty of Peru until the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. In other words, the yerba mate bush was named after the region where this infusion naturally grew and was consumed, this was in the area of the Guaraní Jesuit Missions. These missions were located in a region of the formerly (from the late 16th century to the late 18th century) called " Paraguaria Province". This region or province, then dependent on the Viceroyalty of Peru, included regions of today: Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile.

Description

Mat yerba leaves.

The species Ilex paraguariensis is an evergreen tree, up to 15 m tall in the wild. It has a straight, cylindrical bole, up to 30 cm in diameter, covered with a thin, ribbed grayish-brown bark. The branches sprout from the tree at right angles, giving rise to a pointed crown. The root is taper.

The leaves are alternate, obovate, with a toothed margin and an obtuse apex, about 11 cm long and 5 cm wide, coriaceous; they never have hairs or stomata on the upper side, dark green in color, and small stomata on the underside. The primary and secondary veins are yellowish in color and very marked. They last about three years on the plant.

Between October and November, the flowering season, it produces inflorescences in the form of corymboid bundles with 40 to 50 flowers, which develop axillary. It is dioecious; the male specimens have dicasiums with between 3 and 11 flowers, while the females appear solitary or in groups of three at most. The flowers are simple, small, polygamous, whitish in color; the calyx and corolla are usually tetramerous or exceptionally pentameric. Between the petals it has the same number of stamens.

Pollination is entomophilous, being both bees and diptera the vehicles for fertilization. Between the months of January and March, the fruit ripens, an indehiscent nut about 7 mm in diameter, purplish, reddish or blackish in color when ripe, with a not very prominent stigma. Contains 4 to 8 rough, yellow propagules; presenting the fruits, mainly the green fruits, significant amounts of saponins. Dissemination generally occurs endozoically, with birds being its main vectors.

Taxonomy

Ilex paraguariensis was described by Augustin Saint-Hilaire and published in Mém. mus. Hist. Nat. 9: 351 1822.

Etymology

ilex: generic name that was the designated Latin name for a species of Quercus (Quercus ilex) commonly called holm oak, which has foliage similar to, and is occasionally confused with, European holly.

paraguariensis: geographical epithet that alludes to its location in Paraguay.

Sinonimia

• Ilex bonplandiana Münter
• Ilex curitibensis Miers
• Ilex domestica Reissek
• Ilex domestica var. glabra Reissek
• Ilex domestica var. pubescens Reissek
• Ilex mate A.St.-Hil.
• Ilex sorbilis Reissek
• Ilex theaezans Bonpl. ex Miers
• Ilex vestita Reissek

Economic and cultural importance

Growing

The yerba requires tropical temperatures and high humidity in the environment, as well as frequent rainfall, in the order of 2000 mm per year, especially during flowering. The optimum temperature is around 20 °C on average, although it supports mild frosts well. It is very shade tolerant.

Prefers low sites, with good drainage and the possibility of rooting deep. The soil should be slightly acidic, sandy or clayey, with a fine or medium texture. It has high requirements for phosphoric acid and potassium.

Planting

Raid (plastic sieve tied on its four tips) yerba mate during her harvest in Misiones.

Drying of the yerba mate in a establishment of Campo Ramón, Misiones.

Yerba mate canchada (tritured rudely) prior to the shipment to the mill.

Traditionally, the grass was cultivated in a simple extractive way, taking advantage of the wild specimens of the understory, this practice is no longer used, currently there are crops in an orderly manner. The initial attempts to domesticate its cultivation ran into difficulties in germination, which led the priests of the Jesuit reductions, the first to undertake the attempt, to encourage replanting in jungle areas and pruning as a means of increasing production. In a good part of Brazil, small farms still work that way.

For organized cultivation, the seeds are harvested between February and April; they must be planted immediately or stored with great care, to prevent their hardening from making them unviable. At low temperatures they can be stored for up to a year, although their ability to germinate is abruptly reduced. In many externally mature seeds, the embryo is still rudimentary, which causes very long germination periods in some cases. However, sexual reproduction remains the most frequent form of cultivation.

Normally the seeds obtained from ripe fruits are broken and soaked once harvested; after letting them dry, they are planted less than 30 days after harvest. With abundant watering and favorable temperature, germination takes place after one or two months. They are transplanted after one year to their final location, assuming their roots for another year.

Organized plantations began to be put into practice in Paraguay around 1915, using a quadrilateral or staggered layout. Around the same date, improvements in pruning techniques were developed, among them the so-called table cut, a horizontal pruning suitable for mechanical harvesting, which also improves the yield of the plant. In 1953 a modification to the planting technique was imposed, locating the saplings on contour lines and increasing the density per hectare. The use of legumes as a companion crop also improves soil yield.

Agamic reproduction (by cuttings) is unusual, especially due to the difficulty of obtaining rooted segments; the rooting rate of high branches is low, even when hormones are used to promote it. in vitro fertilization techniques are still experimental.

World production

Although three republics are the main and most recognized growers, two countries concentrate more than 90% of the world production of yerba mate.

In first place is Argentina as the world's largest producer of yerba mate with around 700 thousand tons per year (between 56 and 62% of the global), followed by Brazil with around 500 thousand (around 34 to 36%) and Paraguay with 50 thousand (5% worldwide).

Consumption

There are three basic ways to consume yerba mate, which receive different names:

• The most common form is the matt, an infusion that is prepared in a container (also called "mate") or -if the container is of the wide-mouth variant is called "porongo"- where hot water is poured, between 75 and 82 degrees of temperature, which is suctioned by a bulb.
• Tereré is similar to math, but it is prepared with cold water or juice of some citrus, ice and yoke, its consumption is special for the days of heat. It is usually added mixture of yuyos or medicinal remedies such as mint, cedron, peperine, burrito, cocus, among others. It is typical of the Guaraní region, in which between the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuit Missions Jesuíticas-Guaraní were established.
• Cooked mate is an infusion. To prepare it first it heats water, is added yerba mate before boiling (many times "burned" previously with sugar) and then it is grated and served in a cup. Today, this way of preparing the cooked mate, has been in some places displaced by the cooked mate prepared in paper bags, similar to those of the common tea in which the only difference is in the mill where the matt yerba leaves are processed and classified, eliminating the sticks and the dust. The cooked mate was known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as tea of the Jesuitsbecause they preferred that mode of use, imitating tea.

History of yerba mate

Carlos Thays observing his yerba mate plants at the Botanical Garden of Buenos Aires.

Known as Jesuit tea or Paraguayan tea. The herb has been consumed since time immemorial by the Káingang, Guarani and Guaycurú peoples, who collected the leaves of ka'a (grass in Guarani) in the Paraná jungle, where it grew wild. Initially they chewed them, then they prepared them as an infusion.

The Kaingang were the first consumers of yerba mate. In ancient times they did not process the leaves, but ate them fresh. They threaded them into a thread that they tied to their waists, and they ate them throughout the day.

For their part, the Guarani were the first producers of yerba mate and perfected successive production processes, such as Barbacuá Mbyky and Barbacuá Yvaté.

After the period of Spanish-Portuguese domination began in South America, the custom of drinking the infusion spread. Towards the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century, the Spanish considered mate a dangerous vice. In April 1595, the lieutenant governor of Asunción, Juan Caballero Bazán, prohibits transit through the yerbatales and cultivation.
With the arrival of the Society of Jesus in Paraguay at the beginning of the 1600s and until 1630, the consumption of mate and the export of yerba were prohibited. But the ban on consumption only served to attract the curiosity of the conquerors.

Around 1600, around 500 kilos of yerba were consumed in Asunción per day. In 1611 Marín Negrón, governor of Asunción, imposed penalties for those caught "in possession of herbs": one hundred lashes if the offender was indigenous, one hundred pesos fine if he was Spanish. At the same time, Hernandarias, governor of Buenos Aires, repressed the consumption of weed with a 10-peso fine and 15 days in jail, while ordering the burning of sacks of weed smuggled in in the Plaza Mayor.

Finally, the cultivation was authorized to the Jesuits, who monopolized it until they were expelled in 1767. The Jesuits managed to domesticate the plant, through seed drying techniques, which allowed the plantations to be extended to the point that the sale of Yerba mate became the main source of income for the “reductions”. Around 1720, consumption had also become widespread in the current state of Paraná (Brazil). In Chile from the Colony up to the XIX century it had a wide diffusion, giving up its preponderance in urban areas in favor of tea.

At the end of the XVIII century, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the yerbales were lost as productive exploitation. Its replacement was made difficult because the methods that had allowed the Jesuits to produce germination on an industrial scale were unknown. The Franco-Argentine landscaper Carlos Thays investigated the methods of seed germination. This had already been enunciated by the naturalist Aimé Bonpland, who had lived in the Jesuit missions, but his studies had been lost.

In 1895 Thays received the first yerba mate seeds and managed to make them germinate by subjecting them to prolonged immersion in water at a high temperature. Due to the success obtained, the Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock of the Argentine Nation confirmed the efficacy of Thays system and spread it in the Northwest region of the country.

Regulations

Planning of Yerba Mate in the province of Misiones, Argentina.

Denominations

According to the Argentine Food Code (CAA), the name yerba mate or yerba is known exclusively for the product made up of the dried, lightly toasted and shredded leaves of Ilex paraguariensis, mixed or not with fragments of young dry branches, petioles and floral peduncles, without prejudice to authorizing the inclusion of other species of the same genus as soon as studies are available that support their safety and are approved by the National Health Authority.

Other denominations are also considered:

• Yerba mate sapecada: "sapecar" or "zapecar" is a Guaraní term that means wide open eyes (“sa” or “za” means “ojo”, “peca” or “mbecá”, means “open”). It is done shortly to cut the branch of the tree and consists of passing it near the fire so that the cells can fill and release most of the water. In this way their enzymes (called "oxidase polyphenol") are deactivated, thus preventing fermentation. This process also fixes chlorophyll, thus achieving the yerba maintains the green color that it would lose if it dried naturally.
• Yerba mate canchada: After the sapecado, the yerba is dried and crushed thickly.
• Yerba mate elaborated: is the sung yerba that has been subjected to processes of zarandeo, crushing and grinding, such that it conforms to the following classifications:
  • Yerba mate made with stick: is the yerba that contains no less than 65% of desiccated, broken or pulverized leaves and no more than 35% of thick and finely crushed stick, astillas and fibers thereof. In order to determine the total amount of stick, the opening tamics of 1 x 20 mm and n.o 40 will be used (account mesh per inch). The fraction retained on the sieve of 1 x 20 mm will be considered stick and should not be less than 12.5% in weight of the sample analyzed. The fraction that passes through the sieve n.o 40 will be considered a leaf. With an alicuota of the fraction retained in the sieve N.o. 40 from successive quartes, it will proceed to extract with a clamp the chips and stick peels present with which the amount of stick will be quantified in that fraction. This percentage, plus the retention in the sieve of 1 x 20 mm will make up the total stick percentage of the sample analyzed. One hundred percent of the sample analyzed must pass by a sieve whose opening is 5 x 70 mm.
  • Yerba mate elaborated despalada (or depalillada): it is the yerba that contains no less than 90% of desiccated, broken or pulverized leaves and no more than 10% thick or finely crushed stick, astillas and fibers thereof.
• Caaminí or Ka'a mini (ca-a: grass; Min: small): It is the variety of yerba mate characterized by being very finely grinded (from there "mined" because the leaves are reduced to tiny fragments) and practically devoid of stick.
• Yerba mate tostada: is the math yerba elaborated after a coughing process.
• Yerba soluble, Instant mate, matt extract powderor matt concentrate: is the powdered product resulting from the dehydration of the aqueous extracts obtained exclusively from the matt yerba.
• PU 1, finer grinding that meets the Uruguayan PU or Uruguay.

Features

The elaborated yerba mate that is kept in storage, exhibited or sold must meet the following characteristics:

• (a) humidity (100-105 °C): max 9.5%
• (b) total ash (500-550 °C): max 9.0%, AOAC method (on dry product).
• c) insoluble ash in chloric acid at 10% p/v max 1.5%
• d) caffeine: mint 0.6%, cutting method (on dry product).
• e) (Res MSyAS N.o 990, 22.12.97) "extract aqueous minimum 25%, method AOAC (on dry product)".
• (f) foreign vegetable substances: max 1.0%
• (g) yerba mate seeds: max 1.0%
• (h) should not be burned, altered or exhausted.

Chemical composition and properties

Yerba mate with Stick

The leaves of the plant contain caffeine as a psychoactive principle. In addition, mate contains xanthines, which are alkaloids such as caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine, well-known stimulants found in coffee and chocolate. Caffeine content ranges from 0.7-1.7% dry weight (compared to 0.3-9% for tea leaves, 2.5-7.5% in guarana, and more than 3, 2% for coffee).

Stereoisomers

However, caffeine is not chiral, and has no stereoisomers, and "matheine" is an official synonym for caffeine in the Chemistry Databases.

Studies on mate, although very limited, have shown preliminary evidence that the xanthine cocktail of mate is different from other species, as it contains caffeine that affects more significantly muscle tissues, as opposed to those in the system central nervous system, which are similar to those of other natural stimulants. The three xanthines present in mate have been shown to have a relaxing effect on smooth muscle tissue, and myocardial stimulating effects.

Characteristics of soluble yerba mate

Soluble yerba mate must meet the following characteristics:

• (a) humidity (100-105 °C), max 7.5%
• (b) total ash (500-550 °C), max 9.0%
• (c) total nitrogen, max 3.0%
• (d) Total carbohydrates (such as glucose), 18-24%
• e) total purinical bases, Bailey-Andrew method, minus 2.5%
• (f) alkalinity of ashes (in ml of acid N): 25-30%
• g) pH of a 2% p/v solution in distilled water 5.0-6.0.

Other standards

The C.A.A. (Chapter II, Article 132) provides certain rules for Yerba Mate:

• The mills, "rails" and devices for yerba mixtures will have protective devices to avoid dust dispersal. The mechanically vacuumed powders during the processing process, which have not been in contact with the environment, may be used, provided that they are made up of herb suitable for consumption.
• The grinding of substitutes or adulterations of the matt yerba is prohibited.
• The mixture of herbs to prepare the various types can only be made by means of mechanical devices.
• The preparation of extracts of yerba mate (yerba mate soluble) and related products and the extraction of caffeine should be made in separate premises.
• The elaborate yerba mate should be delivered to the public in first-use containers, manufactured with appropriate materials for its good conservation, which should carry warranty closure (sello, seal, blanket, etc.). It is forbidden to break the contents of these containers for sale in detail.
• Those who pack yerba mate may not have in the units of their local containers belonging to other developers or fractionators, without express authorization of them.
• The circulation of loose sticks and the existence of adulterant vegetables of yerba mate, which will be confiscated immediately where they are found, is prohibited.
• The same will be done with the math yerba that is adulterated or damaged and with which it is deposited in unhygienic conditions or affecting its purity. The mills may have the percentage of loose sticks fixed by the competent authority regarding the existence of yerba mate total and according to the type of product they produce.

Other uses

In December 2006, a medical study pointed out the usefulness of the consumption of cooked mate to obtain good images of the pancreas and bile ducts in a bloodless way. When performing a cholangioresonance or abdominal nuclear resonance, gastroduodenal fluid interferes with the view of the pancreas and bile ducts. It has been observed that manganese, having paramagnetic properties, inhibits the magnetic interference of gastroduodenal fluid. Because the infusion of yerba mate is very rich in manganese, the patient is given cooked mate to drink and after 15 minutes an MRI is performed, thus obtaining a defined image of the pancreas and bile ducts.

Ilex paraguariensis is also the active ingredient in a famous cream used by physiotherapists, chiropractors and athletes around the world, called Biofreeze (United States).

Studies in vivo and in vitro show that yerba mate exhibits significant anticancer activity. At the University of Illinois in 2005, yerba mate was found to be "rich in phenolic constituents" and that it serves to "inhibit the proliferation of mouth cancer cells".

The abuse of yerba mate in any of its forms is a frequent cause of hormonal disruption (especially in women), cardiovascular disorders (tachycardia, arrhythmia), nervous disorders (insomnia) and digestive disorders (chronic gastritis, esophagitis, duodenitis, gastroesophageal reflux, chronic colitis, etc.).

In August 2018, Conicet made public and scientifically one more of the various benefits of yerba mate: the antiseptic properties of this vegetable, for example to combat Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and other harmful germs.

Mate in culture

Mate blinded in a grapefruit.

• The matt has the particularity that, unlike the tea or coffee that is served in individual cups, it is usually taken in a single bowl, that the "cever" (the one in charge of pouring water in the bowl) shares among all the members of the "math broth". This gives you a social connotation that the other infusions do not have. But, on the other hand, it carries a certain risk of contagion of diseases through saliva.
• Curiously, in the Middle East, more precisely in Syria and Lebanon, mate is also popular. During the migratory processes that Argentina received in the centuryXX., many Arab immigrants knew the mate and some of them returned with taste for this infusion, making it popular among their compatriots. Mate consumption spread so much that today, Syria is one of the main importers of Argentine yerba mate. Unlike how it is consumed in South America, with a mate for several, in the Middle East it is usually used a container with a grass per person and each receives warm water individually.
• The container (mate. or I agree.) and their little weight are ideal for people who travel or stroll, such as harriers, hikers, explorers, etc.
• There are numerous musical and literary works that collect the extensive use of mate in the "cone". Luis Martínez Serrano composed the tango "Viejo Mate de Plata" which was popularized by the Huasos Quincheros in Chile.[2]
• There are numerous musical and literary works that collect the extensive use of mate in the "South Cone.
• "And there was hot water/The mate was master and master", the phrase of the tango "El bulín de la calle Ayacucho", with lyrics by Esteban Celedonio Flores, music by José and Luis Servidio.

In Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil, mate is the most typical infusion in any family or social gathering. It can be served both from a thermos and from a kettle interchangeably at home, and a thermos is used to drink in other environments. In Argentina and Paraguay, the type made with sticks is consumed to a greater extent and is produced throughout the center-south zone of Paraguay in the northeast of [Argentine Coast] and; in the center-north of this region (in the Northeast) it is very common and almost typical in tereré consumption. In Uruguay, yerba mate despalada or "without stick", finely ground (type P.U 1) is consumed more and is imported from southern Brazil. Currently, some mixtures with other herbs are also used that counteract some of the properties of yerba mate.

• In Paraguay the most popular drink is the tereré prepared with yerba mate although it is also taken hot mate. It is common to see people taking it in front or inside houses, public squares, companies, sports fields, street, etc.; especially when it is hot, for its refreshing effect. It is very common to see members of this collectivity also in Buenos Aires take it using a jug or a "termolar" (a particular brand of thermos for cold water), even in public transport (in peak time up to parades or sitting on the floor or the steps of the doors) while traveling to their places of work.

• The movie Matein of directors Joaquín Peñagaricano and Pablo Abdala portray a dystopic Uruguayan interior in which the consumption of yerba mate has been illegal.

Due to its growing popularity, its consumption has also led to the cultivation of other equivalent species in other parts of the world. In North America the infusion known as yaupon or yaupon mate (currently prepared from the leaves of Ilex vomitoria), has begun to gain popularity; and the species that before was consumed only in rituals by the North American natives, has been cultivated again for this purpose. (as its crop is more resistant to low temperatures, which grows in temperate zones where Illex paraguanensis does not prosper).