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Yerba mate or yerba maté (), '' Ilex paraguariensis'', is a plant
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of the
holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
genus native to South America. It was named by the French botanist
Augustin Saint-Hilaire Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire (4 October 17793 September 1853) was a French botanist and traveller who was born and died in Orléans, France. A keen observer, he is credited with important discoveries in botany, notably th ...
. The leaves of the plant can be steeped in hot water to make a beverage known as mate. Brewed cold, it is used to make '' tereré''. Both the plant and the beverage contain
caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class and is the most commonly consumed Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness pr ...
. The indigenous Guaraní and some Tupi communities (whose territory covered present-day
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
) first cultivated and consumed yerba mate prior to
European colonization of the Americas During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and the early 19th century. The Norse explored and colonized areas of Europe a ...
. Its consumption was exclusive to the natives of only two regions of the territory that today is Paraguay, more specifically the departments of Amambay and Alto Paraná. After the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
discovered its commercialization potential, yerba mate became widespread throughout the province and even elsewhere in the Spanish Crown. Mate is traditionally consumed in central and southern regions of South America, primarily in Paraguay, as well as in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil, the Gran Chaco of Bolivia, and Southern Chile. It has also become popular in the
Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...
and
Alawite Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...
community in the Levant, especially in Syria and Lebanon, where it is imported from Paraguay and Argentina, thanks to 19th-century Syrian immigrants to Argentina. Yerba mate can now be found worldwide in various energy drinks as well as being sold as a bottled or canned iced tea.


Name and pronunciation

The name given to the plant in the Guaraní language (of the indigenous people who first used mate) is , which has the same meaning as 'herb'. , in Portuguese, a term describing several herb species, is derived from the Tupí expression '','' meaning something like 'what keeps us alive', but is rarely used nowadays. ''Mate'' is from the Quechua ,Real Academia Española
"Mate"
Retrieved 23 May 2013.
a word that means 'container for a drink' and 'infusion of an herb', as well as 'gourd'.AULEX, "Online Quechua-Spanish Dictionary"
Retrieved 23 May 2013.
The word ''mate'' is used in modern Portuguese and Spanish. The pronunciation of in Spanish is , with the stress on the first syllable of ''mate''. The word is Spanish for 'herb', a variant spelling of used throughout Latin America.Real Academia Española
"Yerba"
Retrieved 23 May 2013.
''Yerba'' may be understood as 'herb', but also as 'grass' or 'weed'. It may also be used in reference to marijuana (''
Cannabis sativa ''Cannabis sativa'' is an annual Herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plant. The species was first classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The specific epithet ''Sativum, sativa'' means 'cultivated'. Indigenous to East Asia, Eastern Asia, the pla ...
''). In Argentina, refers exclusively to the plant. , therefore, literally means the 'gourd herb'; i.e., the herb one drinks from a gourd. The Portuguese name for the plant is pronounced or in the areas of traditional consumption. The drinks are usually called (hot; traditionally served in a gourd), (cold; traditionally served in a bull horn), or (hot or cold; lit. 'mate tea', served in cups or glasses). While is made with roasted leaves, the other drinks are made with raw or lightly toasted green leaves, and are very popular in the south and center-west of the country. Most people, colloquially, call both the plant and the beverage by the word . In English, both the spellings ''mate'' and ''maté'' are used to refer to the plant or the beverage. The
acute accent The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, Latin, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabet, Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accen ...
over the final '-e' was likely added by analogy with words of French origin like café, not to mark stress but to indicate that the '-e' is not silent as it is in the English word ''mate'' (partner or friend); indeed French also uses the spelling with an accent. In Spanish, the spelling is an unrelated word meaning 'I killed', a conjugation of the verb ''matar''.


Description

''Ilex paraguariensis'' begins as a
shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...
and then matures to a tree, growing up to tall. The leaves are
evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...
, long and wide, with serrated margins. The leaves are often called (Spanish) or (Portuguese), both of which mean "herb". They contain
caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class and is the most commonly consumed Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness pr ...
(known in some parts of the world as mateine) and related xanthine alkaloids, and are harvested commercially. The
flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...
s are small and greenish-white with four petals. The fruit is a red
drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...
in diameter. Junqueira 2001 reported
extrafloral nectaries Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, ...
on its leaves.


History

Mate was first consumed by the indigenous Guaraní people and also spread in the Tupí people that lived in the departments of Amambay and Alto Paraná the territory of Paraguay. Its consumption became widespread during European colonization, particularly in the Spanish colony of Paraguay in the late 16th century, among both Spanish settlers and indigenous Guaraní, who had, to some extent before the Spanish arrival, consumed it. This widespread consumption turned it into Paraguay's main commodity above other wares, such as
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, and the labour of indigenous peoples was used to harvest wild stands. In the mid-17th century,
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
s managed to domesticate the plant and establish plantations in their Indian reductions in Misiones, Argentina, sparking severe competition with the Paraguayan harvesters of wild stands. It is here when the plant began its incursion into other non-Paraguayan territories. After their expulsion in the 1770s, their plantations fell into decay, as did their domestication secrets. The industry continued to be of prime importance for the Paraguayan economy after independence, but development in benefit of the Paraguayan state halted after the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) that devastated the country both economically and demographically. Some regions with mate plantations in Paraguay became Argentine territory. Brazil then became the largest producer of mate. In Brazilian and Argentine projects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the plant was domesticated once again, opening the way for plantation systems. When Brazilian entrepreneurs turned their attention to
coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
in the 1930s, Argentina, which had long been the prime consumer, took over as the largest producer, resurrecting the economy in
Misiones Province Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the Provinces of Argentina, 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia, Argentina, Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil ...
, where the Jesuits had once had most of their plantations. For years, the status of largest producer shifted between Brazil and Argentina. Today, Brazil is the largest producer, with 53%, followed by Argentina, 37%, and Paraguay, 10%. In the city of Campo Largo, state of Paraná, Brazil, there is a Mate Historic Park (), funded by the state government to educate people on the sustainable harvesting methods needed to maintain the integrity and vitality of the oldest wild forests of mate in the world. As of June 2014, however, the park is closed to public visitation.


Cultivation

The yerba mate plant is grown and processed in its native regions of South America, specifically in Paraguay, some parts of northern Argentina ( Misiones), Uruguay, and southern Brazil (
Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Mato Grosso do Sul). Cultivators are known as (Spanish) or (Brazilian Portuguese). Seeds used to germinate new plants are harvested after they have turned dark purple, typically from January to April. After harvest, they are submerged in water in order to eliminate floating non-viable seeds and detritus like twigs, leaves, etc. New plants are started between March and May. For plants established in pots, transplanting takes place April through September. Plants with bare roots are transplanted only during the months of June and July.Burtnik, Oscar José
"Yerba Mate Production"
3rd Edition, 2006. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
Many of the natural enemies of yerba mate are difficult to control in plantation settings. Insect pests include '' Gyropsylla spegazziniana'', a true bug that lays eggs in the branches; '' Hedyphates betulinus'', a type of beetle that weakens the tree and makes it more susceptible to mold and mildew; '' Perigonia lusca'', a
moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...
whose larvae eat the leaves; and several species of
mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...
s. ''P. lusca'' may be controlled with a nuclear polyhedrosis virus used as a biopesticide. This was first applied in 1992. When ''I. paraguariensis'' is harvested, the branches are often dried by a wood fire, imparting a smoky flavor. The strength of the flavor, caffeine levels, and other nutrients can vary depending on whether it is a male or female plant. Female plants tend to be milder in flavor and lower in caffeine. They are also relatively scarce in the areas where yerba mate is planted and cultivated. According to
Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...
in 2012, Brazil is the biggest producer of mate in the world with (58%), followed by Argentina with (32%) and Paraguay with (10%).


Use as a beverage

The infusion, called in Spanish-speaking countries and in Brazil, is prepared by filling a container, traditionally a small, hollowed-out gourd (described below), up to three-quarters full with dry leaves (and twigs) of ''I. paraguariensis'', and filling it up with water at a temperature of , hot but not boiling. Sugar may or may not be added. The infusion may also be prepared with cold water, in which case it is known as . Drinking mate is a common social practice in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Southern Brazil, and Southern Chile among people of all ages, and is often a communal ritual following customary rules. Friends and family members share from the same container, traditionally a hollow gourd (also called a , , or simply in Spanish, a or in Portuguese, or a in Italian), and drink through the same wooden or metal straw (a in Spanish or in Portuguese). The gourd is given by the brewer to each person, often in a circle, in turns. The recipient drinks the few mouthfuls in the container, and then returns the mate to the brewer, who refills it and passes it to the next person in clockwise order. The recipient is not supposed to give thanks until they are done drinking the beverage, and if they do, they will not be served any more ''mates''. Although traditionally made from a hollowed calabash gourd, these days mate "gourds" are produced from a variety of materials including wood, glass, bull horns, ceramic, and silicone. In the same way as people meet for tea or coffee, friends often gather and drink mate () in Paraguay, Argentina, Southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Southern Chile. In warm weather the hot water is sometimes replaced by lemonade. Paraguayans typically drink yerba mate with cold water during hot days and hot water in the morning and during cooler temperatures. Yerba mate is most popular in Paraguay and Uruguay, where people are seen walking the streets carrying the and often a (thermal vacuum flask) in their arms. In Argentina, of yerba mate is consumed annually per capita; in Uruguay, the largest consumer, consumption is ."Mate: The Bitter Tea South Americans Love to Drink"
Retrieved 30 May 2013.
The amount of herb used to prepare the infusion is much greater than that used for tea and other beverages, which accounts for the large weights. The flavor of brewed mate resembles an infusion of vegetables, herbs, and grass and is reminiscent of some varieties of
green tea Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the '' Camellia sinensis'' that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millenn ...
. Some consider the flavor to be very agreeable, but it is generally bitter if steeped in hot water. Sweetened and flavored mate is also sold, in which the mate leaves are blended with other herbs (such as peppermint) or citrus rind. In Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, a version of mate known as (or just ''mate'' or ''cocido'') in Paraguay and in Brazil is sold in teabags and in a loose-leaf form. It is often served sweetened in specialized shops or on the street, either hot or iced, pure or with fruit juice (especially lime, known in Brazil as ) or milk. In Paraguay, Argentina, and Southern Brazil, this is commonly consumed for breakfast or in a café for afternoon tea, often with a selection of sweet pastries (''facturas''). An iced, sweetened version of ''mate cocido'' is sold as an uncarbonated
soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...
, with or without fruit flavoring. In Brazil, this cold version of is especially popular in the south and southeast regions, and can easily be found in retail stores in the same cooler as other soft drinks. , which is toasted, has less of a bitter flavor and more of a spicy fragrance. becomes creamy when shaken and is more popular in the coastal cities of Brazil, as opposed to the far southern states, where it is more commonly consumed in the traditional way (green, with a silver straw from a shared gourd), and called ( in Spanish, particularly Argentine Spanish). In Paraguay, Southern Brazil ( Mato Grosso do Sul, west of
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
and Paraná), and the Argentine littoral, a mate infusion, called in Spanish and Portuguese or sometimes in Gaúcho, Caipira and Sulista Portuguese, is also consumed as a cold or iced beverage, usually sucked out of a horn cup called a with a . The Guarani used to drink it in this format, but without the ice as they did not have the technology for it, reason why, it is accredited to be the first and original way of consumption. can be prepared with cold water (the most common way in Paraguay and Brazil) or fruit juice (the most common way in Argentina). The version with water is more bitter; fruit juice acts as a sweetener (in Brazil, this is usually avoided with the addition of table sugar). Medicinal or culinary herbs, known as (weeds), may be crushed with a pestle and mortar and added to the water for taste or medicinal reasons. Paraguayans have a tradition of mixing mate with crushed leaves, stems, and flowers of the plant known as (the flower of August, plants of the genus '' Senecio'', particularly '' Senecio grisebachii''), which contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Modifying mate in this fashion is potentially toxic, as these alkaloids can cause veno-occlusive disease, a rare condition of the
liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...
which results in liver failure due to progressive occlusion of the small venous channels. Mate has also become popular outside of South America. In the tiny hamlet of Groot Marico, North West Province, South Africa, mate was introduced to the local tourism office by the returning descendants of the Boers, who in 1902 had emigrated to Patagonia in Argentina after losing the Anglo Boer War. It is also commonly consumed in Lebanon, Syria, and some other parts of the Middle East, mainly by
Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...
and
Alawite Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...
people. Most of its popularity outside South America is a result of historical emigration to South America and subsequent return. It is consumed worldwide by expatriates from the Southern Cone. Materva is a sweet, carbonated soft drink based on yerba mate. Developed in Cuba in 1920, and produced since the 1960s in
Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, it is a staple of the Cuban culture in Miami.


Chemical composition and properties

Yerba mate contains a variety of polyphenols, such as the
flavonoid Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...
s, quercetin and rutin. Yerba mate contains three xanthines:
caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class and is the most commonly consumed Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness pr ...
, theobromine, and theophylline, with caffeine content varying between 0.7% and 1.7% of dry weight (compared with 0.4–9.3% for tea leaves, 2.5–7.6% in guarana, and up to 3.2% for ground
coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
). Theobromine content varies from 0.3% to 0.9%; theophylline is typically present only in small quantities or sometimes completely absent. In some circles, mateine is a referential term for caffeine when found present in yerba mate (similar to theine from tea or guaranine from guarana). Yerba mate also contains
mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
s, such as
potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...
,
magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...
, and
manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...
.


Weight loss

There is no good evidence for yerba mate having an effect on body weight in humans.


Cancer

Hot mate consumption is associated with oesophageal cancer. Very hot beverages (above 65 °C) are classified by the
International Agency for Research on Cancer The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; ) is an intergovernmental agency forming part of the World Health Organization of the United Nations. Its role is to conduct and coordinate research into the causes of cancer. It also cance ...
(IARC) as ''probably carcinogenic to humans'' ( group 2A), which also includes hot mate, as it is typically consumed at a temperature of 70 °C. This classification indicates that the link between very hot beverage consumption and cancer is likely, but the proportion of oesophageal cancer cases due to drinking very hot beverages is not yet known. There is no such association for cold mate and, in general, preparations under 65 °C are not considered carcinogenic and are evaluated as ''not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans'' ( group 3). Since the traditional preparation of yerba mate leaves involves
smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted, and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, whi ...
them they contain a high number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as benzo(a)pyrene, which are
carcinogenic A carcinogen () is any agent that promotes the development of cancer. Carcinogens can include synthetic chemicals, naturally occurring substances, physical agents such as ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and Biological agent, biologic agent ...
.


See also

* Black drink * Club-Mate * Matte Leão * '' Ilex guayusa'', known as ''guayusa'', another caffeine-containing holly species of the ''Ilex'' genus, native to the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest * '' Ilex vomitoria'', a caffeine-containing species of the ''Ilex'' genus native to North America * Kuding, ''Ilex kudingcha'' * Materva * Nativa * Guayaki * Yerba Mate Playadito


References


External links


Plant of the Month: Yerba Mate
at JSTOR Daily. January 5, 2023 {{DEFAULTSORT:Yerba mate Ilex Flora of Argentina Flora of Brazil Trees of Brazil Flora of Paraguay Flora of Uruguay Flora of the Atlantic Forest Flora of the Cerrado Latin American cuisine Caffeine Herbal and fungal stimulants Herbal teas Medicinal plants Crops originating from the Americas Crops originating from Brazil Crops originating from Argentina Crops originating from Uruguay Crops originating from Paraguay Near threatened plants Plants with extrafloral nectaries Agriculture in Brazil Agriculture in Argentina Agriculture in Paraguay Symbols of Rio Grande do Sul