Theobroma cacao or five years old. A mature tree may have 6,000 flowers in a year, yet only about 20 pods. About 1,200 seeds (40 pods) are required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of cocoa paste. Historically, chocolate makers have recognized three main cultivar groups of cacao beans used to make cocoa and chocolate: Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario. The most prized, rare, and expensive is the Criollo group, the cocoa bean used by the Maya. Only 10% of chocolate is made from Criollo, which is arguably less bitter and more aromatic than any other bean. In November 2000, the cacao beans
Tree from the cinchona tree ("Cinchona") and was for a long time the remedy of choice for the treatment of malaria. Aspirin was synthesised to replace the sodium salicylate derived from the bark of willow trees ("Salix") which had unpleasant side effects. The anti-cancer drug Paclitaxel is derived from taxol, a substance found in the bark of the Pacific yew ("Taxus brevifolia"). Other tree based drugs come from the paw-paw ("Carica papaya"), the cassia ("Cassia spp."), the cocoa tree ("Theobroma cacao"), the tree of life ("Camptotheca acuminata") and the downy birch ("Betula pubescens"). The papery bark of the white birch tree