ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Cashew. The cashew "apple", the enlarged fully ripe fruit, may be eaten raw, or preserved as jams or sweetmeats. The juice is made into a beverage or fermented into a wine. Seeds of the cashew are consumed whole, roasted, shelled and salted, in Madeira wine, or mixed in chocolates. The cashew tree is pantropical, especially in coastal areas. Cashew germinates slowly and poorly; several nuts are usually planted to the hole and thinned later. Cashews are usually roasted in the shell, cracked, and nuts removed and vacuum packed. A perennial species, the cashew has already, in the past, yielded alcohol from the "apple", oil from the nut, and charcoal from the wood. The cashew tree has few serious diseases or pests.
