Ground or whole chia seeds are used in Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Paraguay for nutritious drinks and food. Offerings to the Aztec priesthood were often paid in chia seed. Jesuit chroniclers placed chia as the third-most important crop in the Aztec culture, behind only corn and beans, and ahead of amaranth. It may have been as important as maize as a food crop. Chia seeds served as a staple food for the Nahuatl (Aztec) cultures. Ĭhia was given as an annual tribute by the people to the rulers in 21 of the 38 Aztec provincial states. A second and separate area of cultivation, apparently pre-Columbian, was in southern Honduras and Nicaragua. The traditional area of cultivation was in a distinct area that covered parts of north-central Mexico, south to Guatemala. Most of the provinces grew the plant, except for areas of lowland coastal tropics and desert say, and it was given as an annual tribute by the people to the rulers in 21 of the 38 Aztec provincial states.

Tribute records from the Mendoza Codex, Matrícula de Tributos, and the Matricula de Huexotzinco (1560), along with colonial cultivation reports and linguistic studies, detail the geographic location of the tributes and provide some geographic specificity to the main S. hispanica is described and pictured in the Codex Mendoza' and the Florentine Codex, Aztec codices created between 15. Chia seeds, dried, raw Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)ĭrawing from the Florentine Codex showing a S. Genotype has a larger effect on yield than on protein content, oil content, fatty acid composition, or phenolic compounds, whereas high temperature reduces oil content and degree of unsaturation, and raises protein content. A small-scale study with three cultivars grown in the inter-Andean valleys of Ecuador produced yields up to 2,300 kg/ha (2,100 lb/acre), indicating that favorable growing environment and cultivar interacted to produce such high yields. For example, commercial fields in Argentina and Colombia vary in yield range from 450 to 1,250 kg/ha (400 to 1,120 lb/acre). Seed yield varies depending on cultivars, mode of cultivation, and growing conditions by geographic region. New patented varieties of chia have been developed in Kentucky for cultivation in northern latitudes of the United States. In the 21st century, chia is grown and consumed commercially in its native Mexico and Guatemala, as well as Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Australia. The seeds of Salvia columbariae are used for food. Other plants referred to as 'chia' include 'golden chia' ( Salvia columbariae). Chia (or chian or chien) has mostly been identified as Salvia hispanica L. The seeds are hydrophilic, absorbing up to 12 times their weight in liquid when soaked they develop a mucilaginous coating that gives them a gel texture. They are mottle-colored with brown, gray, black, and white. Typically, chia seeds are small flattened ovoids measuring on average 2.1 mm × 1.3 mm × 0.8 mm (0.08 in × 0.05 in × 0.03 in), with an average weight of 1.3 mg (0.020 gr) per seed.

Chia pet weight