ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Seje, Mil Pesos, Jagua, Pataba, Pataua. Fruits provide an oil with a taste almost identical to that of the olive. Ripe fruits are harvested and piled up a day or so to encourage further ripening. They are then steamed in water, and the pulp separated from the bony seed with a mortar. Brazilians may simple press out the oil. The seeds are also consumed as food, and the milky residue from oil extraction, the ' 'yucuta", is consumed as a beverage. The oil, used as a cooking or edible oil, is also used in medicine. In the Guahibo area, the oil is used for asthma, cough, tuberculosis, and other respiratory problems. Elsewhere it is used for bronchitis, catarrh, consumption, flu, leprosy, and parturition.
