Brazil Nut

Bertholletia excelsa

COMMON NAMES

• Brazil Nut

This enormous evergreen tree often grows to heights of 150 feet or above, with branches emerging only from its top. Its fruit, a large woody seedpod containing from 15 to 25 nuts, usually grows to the size of a large grapefruit or melon.

PARTS USED

Nut, seedpod, bark.

USES

For centuries the Brazil nut has remained a dietary staple and a trade commodity of the indigenous tribes of the Amazon rain forests. Peoples of the rain forests use the empty seedpods for drinking cups and to hold small smoky fires for repelling black flies. Oil extracted from the nuts is employed as cooking oil, in high-precision machinery lubrication, and livestock feed. Also popular in other countries, the nuts are usually found in food markets in winter. Brazil nut oil is used to make hair-conditioning products, soaps, and skin creams; it has both detergent and moisturizing properties.

Tribes of the Amazon rain forest drink tea prepared from the bark of the Brazil nut tree as a remedy for liver ailments. In Brazilian folk medicine, the husks of the seedpods are also administered in the form of tea to treat stomachaches. Brazil nuts are rich in protein and vitamin E, an important antioxidant, and in monounsaturated fats, which can counteract some forms of heart disease. Additionally the nuts are an extraordinary source of selenium, another antioxidant; one Brazil nut contains approximately 2,500 times as much selenium as other nuts. This nonmetallic element has been shown to improve mood as well as mental functioning and to increase blood flow to the brain.
Other medical uses - Acrodermatitis enteropathica.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

The Brazil nut tree grows throughout forests of the Amazon River basin of South America. The tree is harvested wild and is rarely cultivated because of its extremely slow growth rate.

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