Health effects of chocolate no medical or regulatory authority has approved any health claim. "Theobroma cacao", the cacao tree, produces seeds containing flavanols. The seeds have been used to make beverages for some 2000 years in Aztec, Olmec, and Maya civilizations in central and south America. The drinks were ascribed a wide variety of curative and stimulant properties, unsupported by experimental evidence. In the 19th century, chocolate as a solid was invented, and milk and sugar were added to create milk chocolate, high in fat and sugar. Doubtful research, sometimes funded by the chocolate industry, has at times made suggestions of possible health benefits
Cacao necrosis virus virus is not infective in sap after heating to 65 °C for 10 minutes, dilution to 0.0001 virions, or storage for 7 days at room temperature. Cacao necrosis virus "Cacao necrosis virus" (CNV) is a plant pathogenic virus of the genus "nepovirus" that infects "Theobroma cacao" en natura causing cacao necrosis disease. CNV is considered synonymous with Strain S of cacao swollen shoot virus. Unlike cacao swollen-shoot virus, it is not transmitted by mealybugs nor vectored by aphids, beetles or leafhoppers that also commonly infest cacao. It is serologically, distantly related to Tomato black ring virus and very distantly related