ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Babassu. Babassu kernels taste, smell, and look like coconut meat, but contain more oil. Babassu oil is rich in "practically all of the elements needed in the manufacture of plastics, detergents, emulsifiers, and many related materials". The protein- and oil-rich seed cakes are suitable for animal feed. The oil is used in medicinal salves. Babassu is reported to tolerate alkalinity, sand, savanna, and waterlogging, perhaps even brackish water. Taxonomically confusing, the literature has contradictory references to O. martiana, O. oleifera, and O. speciosa as the true "Babassu". Babassu grows best in alkaline or neutral soils, under average rainfall and good drainage; but it is found in areas of high to low rainfall, dry to swampy conditions, and generally in siliceous soils. Babassu is probably the only species that could replace coconut in the production of olein and stearin.
