ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Indian almond. Indian almond is widely planted in the tropics and subtropics for ornamental, shade, timber purposes, and for the edible nuts. In southern India, the juice of the young leaves is put in an ointment for leprosy, scabies, and other skin diseases; also used for colic and headache. Indochinese use the leaves with Dacrydium chips and nutgrass rhizomes for dysentery; the fruit, with beeswax, for foul ulcers and hematochezia. Perhaps the crop would be desirable to harvest if mechanical means of cracking and cleaning the nuts were devised. The leaves and fruits contain corilagin, gallic acid, ellagic acid, and brevifolin carboxylic acid, whereas the bark and wood contain ellagic acid, gallic acid, (+)catechin, (-)epicatechin, and (+)leucocyanidin. The wood is often employed as fuel.
