ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Ucahuba Nut. Seeds are the source of Ucahuba or Ucuiba Butter, a solid resembling Cacao butter. Ucahuba is a folk remedy for rheumatism. The fatty acids of the nut are 0.7% decanoic, 13.0% lauric, 69.7% myristic, 3.0% palmitic, 7.7% oleic, and 5.1% linoleic. Reported from the South and Central American Centers of Diversity, ucahuba nut, or cvs thereof, is reported to tolerate waterlogging. Natives of the Hyalea distinguish Virola surinamensis as "ucuuba branca" from Virola sebifera as "ucuuba vermelha". Costa Rica and Panama to the Guianas and Brazil and the lesser Antilles. James A. Duke did not include Virola surinamensis in the Flora of Panama. In the Hyalea of Brazil, the fruits, falling into the water (February to July), float and are gathered with nets made out of bark.
