ABSTRACT

This chapter provides information on the uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Monkey Pod. The Monkey Pot is grown and/or collected for the seeds, which are edible and are the source of oil used for illumination and for making soap. Sap may be mixed into an agreeable drink. Wood is easy to split, strong, and polishes well. Oil extracted from the seeds is considered a powerful hemostat. Ingestion of the seed has associated with alopecia and selenium poisoning, as manifested by acute intoxication, fever, diarrhea, and various neurological symptoms, the active principle being the selenium analog of the sulfur amino acid cystathionine. Trees are easily propagated from seed, in nature probably disseminated by bats. Seed collected locally and used for oil or as a food, especially by natives of northern South America.