Chia: Rediscovering a Forgotten Crop of the Aztecs. Ayerza, Ricardo and Wayne Coates. 2005. ISBN 0-8165-2488-2 (Paper US$14.95) 216 pp The University of Arizona Press, 355 S. Euclid, Ste. 103, Tucson , AZ 85719 .
Chia by Ricardo Ayerrza Jr. and Wayne Coates arrives from the University of Arizona Press intended to provide a wide range of information on a lost crop of ancient America, Salvia hispanica. Chia is a paperback, illustrated by a few black and white images but largely reliant on the text and textual figures to make its case. In this it succeeds, admirably raising chia seeds in the reader's consciousness far above the one place most BSA members might have encountered it, in a 3AM infomercial selling Chia Pets.
Chia was a crop of the great civilizations of North and South America , including the Maya and the Inca, though it was most prominently cultivated by the Aztecs. It has a number of remarkable properties made use of by those ancient cultures and which have potential for agricultural improvement today. Not least among the properties of chia is possession of abundant mucilage, making the seeds very sticky, either for making statues (ancient religious practice) or those Chia Pets though the oil from its seeds has much greater relevance.
Chia opens with a discussion of agriculture and food shortages around the world, especially among the native peoples of the Americas. Credit is given to Norman Borlag's Green Revolution and to the tremendous advances it made possible in food production. However, problems with the modern Western diet are also highlighted, one of which, the nature of consumed fats, consumption of chia might ameliorate. Chia is especially rich in the omega-3 fatty acids which are important aids to health and which are consumed in flax- and fish-based health supplements. In fact chia is even richer in these oils than flax. Chia oil is also very valuable for making oil paints as it provides extraordinary longevity to the colors used.
The chia crop is considered from an historical perspective, both its use in the Aztec Empire as a staple crop and a means by which conquered peoples paid tribute and its decline with the coming of the Spanish. The authors make the point that chia fell much more deeply into disuse than other Aztec staples such as amaranth due in part to certain pagan religious associations of chia. Along the way, the authors are relatively even-handed, not falling into politically correct stereotypes of Christanity's entry to the Americas, and they even point out the loss of some parts of Aztec heritage due to destruction of codices by the Aztecs themselves under a king who predated the Spanish arrival. One other possible reason for the disuse of chia is the fact that unlike many other Aztec crops, it could not be successfully added to European agriculture. This is because chia is a short day plant which flowers too late for agronomic production in Europe .
Chia comes as the crop for which it is named is experiencing a renaissance, both in its original homes as well as in the US . Though the book chapters could be better ordered, as the presently jump from topic to topic in their present order, and more illustrations, perhaps in color, would make a significant improvement. Chia is an excellent book which belongs in college and university libraries, as well as the libraries of those interested in nutraceuticals or just simply in using this heart-healthy crop.
-Douglas Darnowski, Department of Biology, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN 47150.