ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecol-ogy, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Pequi. Several species go under the common name pequi and pequia, said to be one of the best edible nuts in the tropics. But Sturtevant calls it is a sort of chestnut eaten in times of famine. Caryocar has several nut-bearing species. After refining the taxonomy of those species called Pequi and Pequia, Prance and da Silva state that the fruit of C. villosum has an edible pulp and edible cotyledons. Wood of C. villosum is so durable as to be used in boat-building and in heavy construction. Brazilian Indians obtain a yellow dye from C. brasiliense. Intensive crystallization of the pequia fruit-coat fat yielded five fractions very rich in oleodisaturated glycerides and three more soluble fractions which consisted largely of diunsaturated glycerides.
