ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Tahiti Chestnut. Nuts said to be edible after processing. Menninger says what he had long observed: almost any nut which is difficult to describe is said to taste like a chestnut. Seeds are sometimes allowed to ferment in pits in the ground. Natives of Santa Cruz roast the fruits or slowly dry the unhusked fruit over a fire. More often they are boiled or roasted in ashes. Some Samoans make purees from the cooked seeds. Reported to be antidotal to fish poisoning, and useful for blood-shot eyes, diarrhea, and hemorrhage. Mixed with the fern Drynaria to treat virulent gonorrhea in Indonesia. Astringent bark is used for intestinal complaints in Malaya. Seed is boiled in coconut milk for parturitional uterine hemorrhage.
