Ancient Warmth for Tired Bodies

We’ve brought back one of our favorite recipes from our archive of botanical healers. Chiltepin Alleviation Oil is a subtly warming massage and body oil for tired, overworked muscles, created to bring a gentle heat to the skin and help the body to soften and release tension. Handmade in small batches, wild Sonoran chiltepin chiles are slowly infused into golden desert jojoba with meadowsweet, a medicinal plant that has been used in European herbal traditions for centuries. The plant contains naturally occurring salicylate compounds and in the nineteenth century, scientists studying those compounds helped to establish the chemistry that would eventually lead to acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin.

Chiltepin is a tiny wild chile native to the canyons, desert foothills, and brushlands of the Sonoran and parts of the Chihuahuan Deserts in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. For thousands of years, chile peppers have been valued throughout the Americas not only as food, but as part of traditional plant medicine. Known as the "Mother of all Peppers", chiltepins are the only wild chili native to the United States and are considered the ancient ancestor that gave life to nearly all of our domesticated pepper varieties, including jalapenos, serranos, and bell peppers. The heat of chiltepins comes from capsaicin, the naturally occurring compound that gives chile peppers their characteristic warmth. Applied topically, capsaicin has a history of use in warming preparations for tired, aching muscles and joints.

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