According to this author, the name "Ayar" could have been given by the Incas as a justification for continuity between primitive and Inca ethnicity, after gaining control over them; and maca, attributed to the root utilized since prehistoric times, whose magical origin was attributed to its fertility properties.

The Inca Empire adopts the cultivation of maca after general Pachacútec invades the lands of Chinchaycocha in the central mountain range. However, it was not until Huaya Capac, the last Inca ruler, who after conquering the Pumpush through the "mitimaes" (prestigious pacifying colonists sent to warring regions) that they devote themselves exclusively to the cultivation of maca in the Bonbon plateau, vital crossroad between Cusco and the Chinchaysuyo region.

According to XVI and XVII century chronicles, the Inca troops were fed "maca" because it was believed to give vitality and physical strength to the warriors. It is said that during the Inca period it was cultivated in the entire plateau, being sent to Cusco as a tribute from the Pumpush to the Tahuantisuyo Incas. Vasquez Espinoza mentions as "a root with so much fire that it leaves the ground sterile wherever it is planted, leaving little strength in it to plant again...". Rostworowski shares the opinion of the peasants that plant it nowadays, who say that maca impoverishes the soil in the high plateaus. This is why it is planted by accumulating humic soil, in virgin soil, or in soil that has been left unused for several years. This tells us that here we have a plant that on the one hand is offered as a native nutritional supplement, and on the other depletes the soil of nutrients in very high proportions.

When the Spaniards arrived in Peru, according to their chronicles, maca turned out to be the most important product being produced, consumed and marketed by the inhabitants of the high plateau. The settlers themselves did not value its fertility power, but they did use it successfully to improve the fertility of the mares. The Pumpush people paid approximately 15 MT of maca annually to the agent in Chinchaycocha; the oddity of which draws attention to the intrinsic value and importance of this plant. Around the middle of the XIX century there were extensive maca plantations in that area.

Not much was written on maca during the XIX century. However, it is noteworthy that, for the first time, in 1843, this plant was described scientifically; taxonomically denominated Lepidium meyenii Walp, based on a Peruvian specimen collected in Pisacoma, in the Department of Puno (Walpers 1843)

The German scientist Augusto Weberbauer, in 1945, pointed-out the existence of Lepidium meyenii Walp specimens at 4000 meters a.s.l., considering it to be a high plateau grass. It is in the decade of the 60s that scientific papers, by mostly Peruvian biologists chemists, engineers, zoologists, pharmacists and physicians, begin to appear in popular publications. Not much research has been done on maca in foreign countries.