1784

2: Edible fruits and nuts

Semecarpus anacardium L.f.

ANACARDIACEAE

Marking-nut tree, oriental cashew nut (En). Thailand: rakkhon (Kanchanaburi).

Originating from India, now also cultivated in Africa, Australia, and occasionally in South-East Asia.

The swollen pedicel looks like a fruit and is eaten after roasting; the kernel may be eaten, but needs careful shelling. Juice from the false fruit, mixed with lime water, gives a black marking ink. The nuts are used in tanning, the false fruits in dyeing. The pericarp contains about 9% of an irritating oil which is used in traditional medicine, but also in industry (in lacquers, paints, insulating material). The wood is used as charcoal.

Tree, up to 15 m tall. Leaves simple. Flowers unisexual, seldom bisexual, greenish. Fruit a globose-ovoid drupe, reniform, 2 cm x 2.5 cm, black; hypocarp fleshy, equal to drupe. On hill slopes, usually between 500—1000 m altitude. In India flowering in May—July, fruiting in March.

[10]Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd ed. 2 Volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.
[53]Matthew, K.M., 1981–1983. The flora of the Tamilnadu Carnatic. 3 Volumes. The Rapinat Herbarium, Tiruchirapalli, India.
[93]van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950–. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4–10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen

Jansen, P.C.M., Jukema, J., Oyen, L.P.A. & van Lingen, T.G., 1991. Semecarpus anacardium L.f.. In: Verheij, E.W.M. and Coronel, R.E. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 2: Edible fruits and nuts. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea