ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Java-Almond. Seeds are highly regarded in Melanesia as a food, a delicacy, and in pastries as a substitute for almonds. Mature fruits, dried over fires, are an important stored food in the Solomon Islands. Nuts are ground and added to grated taro and coconut cream. An emulsion of seeds is used in baby-foods. Oil from the seeds is used as a substitute for coconut oil for cooking and illumination. Reported from the Indochinese-Indonesian Center of Diversity, Java almond, or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate high pH. In the Solomon Islands, where Canarium is "probably the most important economic tree species", the plants are usually accepted as wild forest species, exploited by gathering, on the basis of recognized individual ownership.
