ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Cashew. Many parts of the cashew plant are used. The cashew "apple", the enlarged fully ripe fruit, may be eaten raw, or preserved as jams or sweetmeats. Seeds of the cashew are consumed whole, roasted, shelled and salted, in Madeira wine, or mixed in chocolates. Cashews are usually roasted in the shell, cracked, and nuts removed and vacuum packed. In India, part of the nuts are harvested from wild trees by people who augment their meager income from other crops grown on poor land. Major producers of cashew nuts are India, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Kenya. In 1968 India planted over 224,000 ha in cashews to supply over 200 processing factories operating all year. A perennial species, the cashew has already, in the past, yielded alcohol from the "apple", oil from the nut, and charcoal from the wood.
