West African peoples use the fruits of Cola nitida during religious ceremonies, weddings and harvest festivals.
A guest entering the house is always presented with a handful of nuts. It is believed that the product helps to communicate with the gods and ancestral spirits. Priests of local cults call the kola fruit "the king of all seeds."
Ancestor of Coca-Cola
Three hundred years ago, African slaves who were taken to Caribbean plantations took the seeds of the sacred tree along with them. This way the plant spread to Jamaica and Haiti, penetrated into South America. But Europeans learned about its amazing properties a little over a century ago. Soldiers and travelers were the first to taste the miraculous nuts. They confirmed the glory of the product as an excellent stimulant and remedy for many diseases. Europeans began planting kola trees in Indonesia and Malaysia, on the islands of Mauritius and Sri Lanka.
In the 19th century, a scientist in Atlanta experimented with a new remedy for headaches. As ingredients, he took kola nut, coca leaves and sugar. By adding carbonated water, a new drink was formed, Coca-Cola. Two years later, he sold the recipe to a businessman who began selling the soda in bulk.
Where it grows
The kola nut grows on a beautiful evergreen tree, which is classified as a plant of the Sterculia species. It can reach a heights of upto 20 meters, and outwardly resembles a chestnut, because it has hanging branches with leathery oblong leaves, yellow flowers and star-shaped fruits.
This tree begins to bear fruit only in the tenth year and produces about 40 kilograms of nuts yearly. The fruit is quite large and can reach a length of about 5 cm. Each one of them contains almost ten rose-smelling seeds, which are kola nuts.
Healthy nuts
The two main substances that give the nut its unusual properties are caffeine and theobromine. These are natural alkaloids that have a stimulating effect on the human body - they activate the work of the heart, tone the nervous system, expand the bronchi and blood vessels. The amount of these substances contained in 100 g of the nuts is impressive - 3.5% caffeine and 2% theobromine. This is 10 times more than in a cup of instant coffee.