Chincho
Also known as chinchu, chikchimpa, purun chincho, shalla chincho, Tagetes elliptica
Quick answer
A marigold of the Peruvian Andes whose leaves and tender shoots are gathered as a seasoning and a green for stews and roasts. It is a different species from huacatay and shares names with it, and the one oil analysed was led by tagetenones.
- Tastes of
- aromatic
- Heat
- Scoville does not apply
Other names
What this spice is called elsewhere, and where the translation is not clean.
chincho
Not stated by the source — Peru
Given with chinchu and chikchimpa as the names the plant is known by, in a paper that does not say which language each belongs to.
purun chincho
Quechua or Spanish, not stated — Quisqui district, Huánuco
Recorded with chincho in two Quechua communities whose people speak Quechua and Spanish. The same survey records shalla chincho for this plant and for Tagetes minuta.
The Huánuco survey checked its spellings against a dictionary of Huánuco Quechua and does not gloss the names.
Flavour and aroma
Called characteristic by the chemists who distilled it, who do not describe it further; the oil itself they found pleasant-smelling and light yellow. No tasting panel was found.
Heat
Pungency scale: none — this spice is not pungent
No heat.
- Tagetenones — Over half of the one oil analysed: the two tagetenones made up 37.27 and 18.84 per cent of an oil distilled from leaves collected in Chupaca, Junín. An instrumental result from one lot of leaves, not a tasting.
- Dihydrotagetone and tagetones — Dihydrotagetone was 14.38 per cent of the same oil and the two tagetones 5.15 and 3.42 per cent. Twenty-seven compounds were identified in all, 96.8 per cent of the oil.
The authors wrote in 2023 that they knew of no earlier analysis of this oil. A paper from the same group the year before cites earlier work and names myrcene, epoxymyrcenes and one tagetenone as the main compounds. The two statements are left side by side.
Preparation and use
A seasoning leaf and a green of the Peruvian highlands. In two Quechua communities of Huánuco it is gathered all year, eaten as a vegetable and used as a condiment; chemists who study it say it goes into stews, roasts and dressings for meat. No source read names a dish.
Storage and freshness
| Form | Good for | Conditions | Fridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh | Not established | Kept cool and used soon after picking. | — |
Quality is not the same as safety
A fresh leaf: a wilted one has lost quality, and one that has turned slimy or mouldy should be discarded.
Forms
The form the sources describe, and so the one this page is about.
Fresh leaves and tender shoots
The form the Huánuco survey records: tender branches and leaves carried home from savanna and garden.
Commonly confused with chincho
Direct comparisons, each with the difference that actually changes what you cook.
Botany
The name both studies use, with voucher specimens from Huánuco lodged in the herbarium of the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina.
Asteraceae
Leaves were what the oil study distilled. The Huánuco survey says of the plants taken home as condiments that only tender branches and leaves are gathered.
Commonly confused with
Tagetes minuta, the better-known Peruvian marigold leaf. In two communities of Huánuco people gave the name chincho, and shalla chincho, to both species, so a name alone does not say which plant is meant.
Another Tagetes, used dried and ground in Georgia. The oil study read here cites analyses of Tagetes patula and Tagetes erecta that found quite different leading compounds.
How it is grown
The plant, how it is propagated and farmed, what threatens the crop, and where it is produced now. Crop diseases here are plant health, not food safety.
How it is grown is not yet described. The two sources read for this Andean marigold are a study of its oil and a survey of what two communities gathered. They say it is wild, ruderal and weedy, kept in homegardens and picked all year, and neither describes the plant or how it grows.
Where it comes from and how it is made
Not stated. The oil study says the plant grows throughout Peru between 1,000 and 4,500 m and that its genus is spread mainly through Central and South America.
- Peru (Chupaca province, Junín) — use or gathering documented here. Where the leaves the oil study distilled were collected, at 3,263 m.
- Peru (Quisqui district, Huánuco) — use or gathering documented here. Where two Quechua communities gather it from humid savanna and from homegardens.
These are the places where the sources read have it collected or gathered. They also list Ayacucho, Ancash and the Lima and Amazon regions as places it grows. None says where it is native.
Gathered in every month of the year in the two Huánuco communities, where most wild greens are picked only in the rains.
Gathered more than grown, where it is described. The Huánuco survey classes it as a wild, ruderal and weedy plant that people collect, leave standing when they clear ground and transplant, and it lists the species among those kept in homegardens of the district. The oil study calls it an ornamental and cultivated plant without describing any cultivation.
Grows between 1,000 and 4,500 m in the Andean regions of Peru and in temperate parts of the Amazon and Lima regions, by the oil study’s account. The leaves it distilled were collected at 3,263 m in Chupaca province, Junín. In Huánuco the plant was gathered from humid savanna and from homegardens, in communities at about 2,800 and 3,200 m.
Buying and quality
Used as a fresh leaf; no dried or ground form is described.
Culture
Recorded by tradition rather than merged into one narrative — these are genuinely different practices.
Quechua communities of Quisqui district, Huánuco
Among the Quechua of Quisqui district, Huánuco, Peru.
A study of what two Quechua farming communities ate through a year, Cani and Monte Azul in the Mito watershed, lists this plant twice. It is one of twelve wild, weedy and ruderal plants gathered in quantity as part of the basic diet, used as a vegetable and as a condiment and picked in every month; and it appears again among the plants brought home in small amounts for seasoning. The survey does not say which dishes it goes into.
- Gathered all year from humid savanna and homegardens
- Eaten as a green and used as a condiment
Peru more widely
Food scientists in Lima and Alicante who work on its oil write that it goes into stews and roasts for its aroma and flavour, and into stews and dressings with meat, and call it one of the most eaten herbs in Peru and one little known outside the country. These are sentences from the openings of chemistry papers, resting on works not read here.
- In stews and roasts
- In dressings with meat
What it is called
- Quechua or Spanish, not stated: shalla chincho
What we do not know
Published openly. A gap we have named is more useful than a gap we have filled with plausible prose.
Not yet established for chincho:
- Propagation
- Archaeological evidence
- Historical timeline
- Ceremonial use
- Traditional medicinal context
- Regulatory limits
- Traditional uses
Its history. No source read documents the history of the plant as a seasoning.