If you found this plant by its Latin name, you probably saw it in a research paper or on an ingredient label. Heliopsis longipes extract is made from the root of a small daisy-family plant from Central Mexico, and in Mexico almost nobody calls it by that name. Market sellers in San Luis Potosí and Querétaro call it chilcuague. Here is how to read those names and what makes one extract better than another.
Heliopsis longipes common name (and the others you'll see)
The most common name is chilcuague. It comes from the Nahuatl chilcoatl, with chil meaning spicy and coatl meaning snake, after the long, twisting shape of the root. "Spicy snake" is a fair description of a root that bites back the moment it touches your tongue.
You'll also see golden root, raíz de oro in Spanish, and Aztec root or Aztec gold root on English labels. Older Mexican names include chilcuan, chil cuas and chilcmecatl. In the European Union's CosIng inventory of cosmetic ingredients the plant appears as "Heliopsis longipes root powder" (reference 90004), which is why some people first meet it on the back of a toothpaste or lip product.
All of these names point to one species. If a label says golden root and the Latin name underneath is Heliopsis longipes, you're looking at chilcuague. For the plant's full history and uses, read our full guide to chilcuague.
Where the heliopsis longipes root grows
Heliopsis longipes is a perennial herb found only in a small part of north central Mexico. Botanists V. Gabriela Cilia-López and colleagues, writing in Botanical Sciences in 2008, describe it as endemic to the Sierra de Álvarez and the Sierra Gorda, across San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato and Querétaro. Hidalgo is sometimes added to the list.
The same team interviewed gatherers, merchants and buyers in markets at San Luis de la Paz, Rioverde and Jalpan, and found dried root on sale all year. Families there have used it for generations. Cilia-López's interviews recorded people chewing the root for toothache and the gums, using it as a spice, and soaking it in alcohol to rub on sore muscles.
Dragon Breath's root is wild-harvested in Central Mexico, from growth zones the Mara team selects with the help of local elders.
“Great stuff! Love that there's an organic version of this”
What's in heliopsis longipes extract
The compound people care about is affinin, also called spilanthol. It is an alkamide, and it is what makes the root buzz.
In 2015, María Isabel Aguilar and colleagues measured it by HPLC in fresh and dried roots and reported 6.9 to 8.5 mg of affinin per gram of root (published in Food Analytical Methods). That works out to about 0.7 to 0.85% of the root by weight. The same study identified 28 volatile compounds in the root, and the plant carries other alkamides alongside affinin.
A good extract pulls as much of that mix as it can out of the root and into a liquid you can use. How it's extracted decides how much of it ends up in the bottle.
Water extracts, spirit extracts, and dual extraction
There are three ways you'll see a chilcuague extract made.
- Water only. The root is steeped or simmered in water. Easy to make, and it picks up the water-soluble parts of the root.
- Spirit only. The root is soaked in alcohol, which dissolves the oily alkamides, affinin included, far more readily than water does.
- Dual extraction. The root is extracted in both water and spirit and the two are combined.
Dragon Breath is dual-extracted in organic solutions. The spirit side carries the alkamides, and the water side carries what alcohol leaves behind, so you get a fuller spectrum of the root's compounds in one bottle. A water-only extract is a different product and isn't comparable.
When Cheryl, a verified buyer, ordered the 3-pack and tried it, she wrote: "Great stuff! Love that there's an organic version of this".
Why a heliopsis longipes spray makes sense
Loose root and powder sit in a bag that gets opened every day. Air and light reach them each time, and you have to measure, chew or mix them before you get anything out of them. Read how chilcuague powder compares if you're weighing the two.
A spray removes all of that. Dragon Breath is 50 ml in a bottle that fits in a jeans pocket, and it holds 250+ sprays. A few sprays is all it takes. The extract stays sealed between uses, and the Miron violet glass keeps light off it, which adds significant longevity to the quality and potency of the extract. You can use it at your desk after lunch, in the car before a meeting, or before a training session, with nothing to prepare.
One spray, second by second
The first second tastes earthy and a little peppery. Then a bright electric buzz spreads across the tongue and mouth. Within a few seconds your mouth waters fast, more than you expect the first time. In one customer's reaction video, the first words after a single spray were "Oh wow, the saliva flow." After that comes a clean, fresh feeling that lingers.
Start with one spray. Once you know the feeling, you can go up to five.
Dragon Breath – Chilcuague Extract
50 ml mouth spray. Wild-harvested chilcuague root, dual-extracted. 250+ sprays.
Add to bagCheck these before you buy
Most listings for this extract give you a pretty bottle and very little else. Look for these on the label or product page.
- The Latin name, Heliopsis longipes. Some "golden root" products are a different plant, and Acmella oleracea (toothache plant) also contains spilanthol but is a separate species.
- Where the root comes from. Chilcuague grows wild only in Central Mexico, so the origin should say so.
- How it's extracted. Dual water and spirit extraction carries more of the root than water alone.
- The glass. Clear plastic lets light straight in. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. Dark Miron glass is the gold standard, and it's what Mara uses.
- Ingredients you can read. Dragon Breath is vegan, gluten free, sugar free and non-GMO.
Dragon Breath ticks every line on that list, and it's the one we'd hand a friend who has only ever read about this root.
Questions people ask
Is Heliopsis longipes the same as chilcuague?
Yes. Heliopsis longipes is the Latin name and chilcuague is the common name in Mexico. Golden root, raíz de oro and Aztec root are the same plant.
Is heliopsis longipes extract the same as spilanthes?
No. Spilanthes (Acmella oleracea) is a different plant that also contains spilanthol. Heliopsis longipes root holds 6.9 to 8.5 mg of affinin per gram, according to Aguilar and colleagues in 2015.
How many sprays should I use?
Start with one spray into the mouth. Once you know the feeling, you can use up to five.
How long does a bottle of Dragon Breath last?
Each 50 ml bottle holds 250+ sprays. At a few sprays a day, that's weeks of use from a bottle that fits in your pocket.
