Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

The sweet potato or camote (Ipomea batatas) is another root vegetable that was consumed less widely in the Americas but quickly became a staple of European cooking from early on. Its slightly sweet flavor earned it the nickname of “sweet potato”. This tuber comes in white, purple and yellow varieties and was grown in subtropical zones, first in the Andean valleys of Peru some 8000 years ago and later in Central America. Camote is eaten cooked, is used to make flour, and is a medicinal plant used for infections and insect bites. It is also used as a natural dye. The word ‘camote’ comes from the Náhuatl word camohtli, while the term ‘batata’ is of Taíno origin; the plant is also known as boniato in the Caribbean. It was brought to Europe by the Spanish at the end of the 16th Century and since then has become enormously popular as a food item around the world; it is one of the most productive crops grown in the Far East today.