Maca: A History and Benefits
It’s not the first time I have heard that severe growing conditions makes a superfood plant. The plant makes a lot of phytochemicals to be able to survive the environment that we can benefit from ingesting.
Maca is one of the only things that grows high up on the plateaus of the Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia and other parts of South America that have high mountain plateaus. China and the US have experimented with trying to grow it, but the potency is nowhere near the Maca grown in that harsh climate. Although it grows in parts of Bolivia, Chile and Brazil, you don’t hear much about that. Peru is the place associated with Maca.
About two miles high in the Andes, where this plant was found growing, the temperature is fierce, frozen and ever-changing with harsh sunlight and high wind and the ground is rocky, hard and dry. Maca sustained the people of the area for thousands of years.
Other names for Maca are Maca-maca, Maino, Ayak chicura and Ayak wilku. The Spanish word maca means to bruise, but also to make a mark. And maca has surely made a mark on those who use it, both health-wise and economically. The other names are used by locals in Peru that somehow describe the plant, but I didn’t find any literal translation for those, just that they were synonymous with Peruvian ginseng.
Maca’s trade name was Peruvian ginseng before it relatively recently made a name for itself. It has absolutely no similarity to ginseng except that like ginseng, it increases energy and stamina. Salesmen are not particularly interested in being technically correct. They are practical. They want the easiest way to communicate why you should want the product, and ginseng is a highly popular thing to associate an unknown product with.
Maca has two Latin names. Lepidium meyenii and Lepidium peruvianum. The first name refers to the wild plant and the second to the cultivated plant, but many continue to use Lepidium meyenii regardless of this fact. The names mean practically the same thing. One means Lepidium grown high in the Andes and the other means Lepidium grown in Peru. Lepidium is pretty non descriptive of what we all know Maca for. It refers to the teeny, tiny fruit that is usually never even mentioned.
Although there is no exact date, research suggests that Maca has been cultivated since 3,500 BC, so it was used by civilizations that predated even the Incas. The Incas made heavy use of Maca. Warriors used to eat it before going into battle because it increased their strength and endurance. During peace, they were sometimes forbidden to eat it to protect the women of conquered towns from the heightened sex drive it gave the warriors. It was so valuable that they could use it to pay their taxes.
Maca is a root vegetable. To me it resembles a beet, but not as deeply colored and it is only colored on the outside. On the inside it is whitish. Most describe it as looking like a turnip. The above-ground leaves which are stringy and stay low to the ground, in other words, the aerial part of the plant, can be eaten, but the real star of the show is the root.
Historically, it has been used for stamina and energy, to relieve menstrual pain, symptoms of menopause, and enhance libido and sexual performance.
But like I alluded to, historically it was and is a food, too. It is a staple in Peruvian cuisine and could be found in porridges, empanadas and soups. Now it is also used in smoothies, hot drinks, cereals, baked goods and desserts.
Maca is a biennial, meaning it takes two years to complete its life cycle. The first year it concentrates on sending a strong root system very deep into the mountain and creating a robust plant, then the second year it goes into reproduction mode to make seeds. If there are not enough nutrients or sun to build a robust plant, it goes right into reproduction mode and becomes an annual to make seeds. I think that is a great example of adaptability.
Maca comes in a variety of colors. They are not separate varieties, though. Different colors come from the same seed; it has different phenotypes. Phenotype means how the genes are expressed in the physical form. It literally means “the type that is shown” from Greek Phainō - I appear or shine, and typos - mark or type.
So, the varieties have exactly the same genes, but the environment influences the gene expression. Even on the same mountain plateau each plant has its own unique situation, for instance, moisture level, temperature, nutrient level, sunlight, wind, etc.
Twenty different colors have been noted, but not all have been studied. Typically, the colors are lumped into 3 to 5 different color categories, and the fascinating thing is that although the color is only skin deep, the different colors have different properties.
Most studies have separated the colors into three categories: red, yellow and black. Sixty to seventy percent of a crop is the most common, yellow, which is defined as beige to gold. Red, defined as light pink to dark purple, accounts for 20-25% and Black, the rarest at 10-15%, is defined as light to dark grey.
The variations of color are said to be caused by varying degrees of natural plant pigments, like anthocyanins, which are red to purple, and carotenoids, which are yellow, and derivatives of these to make other colors.
The Yellow root, the most common and economical, is used for general energy, stability and stress resilience. It is highest in carbohydrates.
The Red is associated with higher antioxidant capacity, popular for female fertility, hormone balance and bone health. It is highest in total polyphenols and anthocyanins.
The Black is marketed as a powerhouse for energy, stamina, physical performance and mental focus. It is the highest in protein.
When the root is harvested, it is laid out in the sun for several weeks to dry it out. This darkens the skin colors. Then it is manually sorted into its color categories.
Then the Maca is processed and sold by color to manufacturers of nutritional products.
Some of the Maca is made into a powder. Some of it is gelatinized, which is a heating process that makes the starch explode out of it, resulting in a gelatin-like state, and some of it is fermented to make the components more bioavailable.
Active compounds found in all Maca are alkaloids, glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, polysaccharides, polyphenols, sterols, thiohydantoins, Macamides and Macaenes.
The last two are unique fatty acids and amides linked to energy and stamina.
Thiohydantoins are unusual ring structures containing sulphur and urea which act as antioxidants, handle difficult microbial challenges, and are antiarrhythmic.
Alkaloids include lepidilines A-D and various pyrroles. Lepidilines are compounds that have been isolated from Maca root and have various health benefits, and pyrroles are five-member sulfur rings that get used to form more complex molecules, for instance, they are a part of hemoglobin and chlorophyll.
Sitosterol, campesterol and brassicasterol are some of the sterols found in Maca. Brassicasterol is not a surprise because Maca is considered a cruciferous vegetable, although it tastes much better than your usual cruciferous vegetable. It is described as having a nutty, butterscotch or caramel flavor.
Sterols are essential to the membrane structure of cells and they act as precursors for hormones, vitamins like vitamin D and various molecules that help control and monitor the metabolism.
Maca is also a good source of potassium, calcium, copper, amino acids, vitamins and other minerals.
Maca can help you get going in the morning and also help you relax at night. It is this multidirectional ability that makes an adaptogen, not the anti-stress narrative that started because someone didn’t understand that it is adaptability to stress that was the important thing in adaptogens, not that it was anti-stress.
Maca helps regulate cortisol and other hormones, so it can help both sexes balance their hormones which goes a long way to handling practically whatever ails you, including the notoriously difficult menstrual and menopause symptoms in women and prostate symptoms in men.
In the end, research and use have shown Maca to be an adaptogen. And you know how I love my adaptogens.
Now that I understand this plant more, I'd like to try the red version. But that is only because it is better for me personally to avoid carbohydrates. But I do notice that it is common for products to have a mixture of all three colors.
We at Herbal Roots will be bringing to you very shortly our own savory, but not too sweet, delicious energy-boosting cocoa mix which contains Maca among other things. I will explain the whole formula to you in a future blog.
But now that you know all about Maca, you will be ahead of the game. I hope you enjoyed learning about it. Ciao for now.