Babassu

The babassu palm is a large, feather-leaved palm of the Amazon edge and the savannas of northern and central Brazil. It bears big bunches of oblong, brown fruits that each hold several almond-shaped kernels wedged within an extremely hard, woody shell.

The kernels are white to cream inside, firm and oily, with a mild coconut-like flavour. They are rarely eaten raw in quantity. Instead they are crushed for oil or milled.

Commercial forms include refined babassu oil, which is solid at cool room temperature and melts easily, as well as kernel cake used for animal feed and flour made from the fruit's starchy middle layer, called mesocarp, which is used in some regional foods.

Babassu palms are native to Brazil, especially the states of Maranhao, Piaui, Tocantins and Para, often forming dense palm forests known as babacuais. The tree grows spontaneously in disturbed and regrowth land, and it has never really been a plantation crop.

Its use goes back to indigenous peoples of the region, who gathered the fruits long before European arrival. The common name babassu is taken from the Tupi-Guarani word family used for the palm in Brazil.

The species was previously classified in the genus Orbignya, and older books and trade documents still use that name. Present botanical authorities place it within Attalea.

Gathering babassu has long been a livelihood for rural families in northern Brazil, and it has historically been dominated by women who split the hard fruits by hand with an axe and a wooden club to get at the kernels. They are known as quebradeiras de coco, the coconut breakers.

The palm provides more than food. Leaves are used for roofing and weaving, the husk makes charcoal and fuel, and the oil has been used for cooking and lamp light.

In the 20th century babassu kernels became an export commodity as a source of lauric oil, competing with coconut and palm kernel oil in soap, margarine and oleochemical industries. Since the 1980s, women's movements in the region have campaigned for free access to the palm groves, and several Brazilian states and municipalities passed laws protecting the right to gather babassu on private land.

The tension between ranching, land clearing and community gathering rights has shaped the babassu story to this day.

Refined babassu oil is used in cooking and frying in Brazil, and in margarines, confectionery coatings, soaps, cosmetics and lotions, since its fatty acid make-up is dominated by lauric acid. The oil melts close to body temperature, which gives it a pleasant feel on skin.

The pale flour from the fruit's starchy layer is mixed into porridges, breads and biscuits in some regions and has been used in traditional folk remedies.

The kernel cake left after pressing is a feed for livestock. Shells are burned for charcoal, and leaves are woven into mats and baskets.

Babassu oil is high in saturated fat, with lauric acid as its main component, so like coconut oil it should be used in moderation within a balanced diet. The fruit flour has been studied mainly in laboratory and small animal work, and claims about it treating inflammation or digestive disease are not backed by robust human trials.

The traditional folk use of babassu mesocarp flour for stomach complaints remains interesting but unproven.