ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of virola Nut. The seeds are the source of Virola fat, a nutmeg-scented fat which soon becomes rancid. It is used for making aromatic candles and soaps. Reported from the South and Central American Centers of Diversity, virola nut, or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate waterlogging, but not to the extent that Virola surinamensis tolerates flooding. Virola candle-nuts are a poor man's source of energy in many tropical developing countries. The trees offer both fire-wood, leaf litter at the rate of ca. 5 MT/ha, and candle-nuts for energy purposes. The jungle names ucachuba, ucahuba, ucauba, uchuhuba, ucuiba, and ucuuba are some of many possible orthographic variants. Dioecious, often buttressed trees to 40 m, the younger branchlets persistently tomentose or glabrescent.
