CASHEW  

     The Cashew has a long history as a useful plant,

 but only in the present century it become an important

 tropical tree crop. The earliest reports of cashew are

 from Brazil, coming from French, Portuguese and

 Dutch observers.  Thevet (1558) a French naturalist,

 visited Brazil during the brief period of French 


settlement and first described the plant at a location somewhere on the north coast. He

recounted  that cashew apples and their juice were consumed and that the nuts were roasted in

fires and the kernels eaten. Thevet provided the first drawing of the cashew showing the local

people harvesting fruits and squeezing juice from the cashew apple into a large jar.

             Gandao(1576) was the first Portuguese writer to describe the cashew, relating that the

cashew apple was a very 0refreshing fruit during the hot season and that the kernels were

better tasting than almonds.

          A general account of the land and people of Brazil

 (1984)    furnishes some botanical informa- tion on the

 flowering and fruiting habit of the cashew and discusses

 ways in which the fruit and nut were used as food.

Soares  de Soucer (1587) in his classic work on

Sixteenth century  Brazil, provides valuable information

on the botany of  the   cashew, a good description of the use of the cashew nut, and a report

that cashew apples    and   juice were thought to have medicinal value.
 
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