Achiote

Achiote, Bixa orellana, is a shrub or small evergreen tree native to Mexico and Central and South America, now grown in many countries. Clusters of white or pink flowers, like single wild roses, give way to spiny red-brown pods, each holding 30 to 45 cone-shaped seeds coated in a waxy blood-red aril. That coating is the source of annatto, an orange-red dye and condiment whose colour is mostly bixin, which is red, with some norbixin, which is yellow. Indigenous peoples of North, Central and South America used the seeds to make red body paint and lipstick, which earned the plant the name lipstick tree. The page records body, face and hair paint worn for decoration or as omens to ward off evil spirits and illnesses, and says the Aztecs apparently used the pigment as red ink for manuscripts. The ground seeds also season dishes across Latin America, the Caribbean and the Philippines.