ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecol-ogy, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Castanea Dentata. Reported to be astringent, sedative, tonic, and vermifuge, American chestnut is a folk remedy for dysentery and pertussis. Leaves have sedative properties. Indians used the bark to treat worms and dysentery. According to Woodroof, chestnuts contain no oil and are very high in carbohydrates, especially starch, making them more easily digestible than other nuts. Reported from the North American Center of Diversity, American chestnut or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate drought, frost, heat, poor soil, sand, slope, and weeds. 'Clapper' is a hybrid from a cross of Chinese-American hybrid backcrossed to the American chestnut, and is a rapid-growing timber-type. Until about 1905, chestnut was important for its durable wood and its nuts. Trees were nearly completely destroyed by the Chestnut Blight, a fungus bark disease (Endothia parasitica).
