The ancient Mesoamerica, spanning the central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador in Central America,  constitutes a pivotal part of human history. Not only did the peoples who used to live in this region contribute greatly to the arts and science, but they also handed down many of the things we are using in the present day to us. In my opinion, unique vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and squash comprise the most important part of these things. However, the mystery of the ancient Mesoamerica is not limited to this.

Anything which may never occur to us could have its origins in Mesoamerica. One of these things is the thing called gum, a product with the odds of turning out irritating to those around when chewed too loudly ,  a product many people enjoy chewing.

The Maya and the Aztec people of the ancient Mesoamerica used to chew the resin oozing from cracks on the trunk of a tree known as Sapodilla. This resin used to be known as sicte in Mayan; the Maya used to chew sicte in particular for the purpose of cleaning their mouths before religious ceremonies. In the present day gum is only made from synthetic material; thus, sicte is not chewed as gum any more. The tree of sapodilla, out of which sicte originates, is a tree that originated in the jungles of Central America. It produces an extremely juicy sweet fruit called sapote.

The tree of sapodilla is known as chicozapote, Manilkara zapota or chicle in Spanish. It was taken to the Philippines by Spaniards during its colonization that began in the XVI Century and spread to Southeast Asia from those islands. Hence, it is mistakenly believed by some that it originated in Southeast Asia. In fact, Manilkara zapota, one of the several names for this tree, emerged as the result of the connection of this tree with the Philippines archipelago.

The Aztec people, who spoke Nahuatl, called the resin oozing from the trunk of the sapodilla tree tzictli. This word translates to sticky thing in English. It first entered into the Spanish language as chicle, then into the Turkish language as ciklet, the word used for gum with a flavor in Turkish. Sapote, the fruit of sapodilla, used to be called tzapotl in Nahuatl. From this denotation originated the word zapote in Turkish and Spanish and the word sapote in English.

Sapotes are extremely sweet and delicious semi-transparent fruits and give enormous pleasure to the people finding an opportunity to taste them. They are regarded as greatly beneficial not only for the purpose of fortifying immunity but also for the heart and the organs of the digestive system on account of the high amount of the vitamin C they contain.