The Brazil bean ( Bertholletia excelsa ) is a South American tree in the Lecythidaceae family, as well as the name of a commercially eaten seed from a tree.
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The Brazil nut family is in the order of Ericales, as are other famous plants such as blueberries, cranberries, sapotes, gutta-percha, tea, phlox and persimmon.
Maps Brazil nut
Brazil nut tree
The Brazil nut tree is the only species in the monotypic genus Bertholletia . These are from Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil, eastern Colombia, eastern Peru, and eastern Bolivia. It happens as a tree scattered in a large forest on the banks of the Amazon River, Rio Negro, TapajÃÆ'³s, and Orinoco. This genus is named after the French chemist, Claude Louis Berthollet.
Brazil nuts are large trees, reaching a height of 50 m (160 ft) and with a stem diameter of 1 to 2 m (3.3 to 6.6 ft), making it the largest tree in the Amazon rainforest. It may live for 500 years or more, and according to some authorities it often reaches the age of 1,000 years. The trunk is straight and generally without branches for more than half the height of the tree, with large large crowns of long branches on the canopy of other trees around it.
His skin is grayish and smooth. Dry leaves of autumn, alternately, simple, whole or crenate, oval, 20-35 cm (7.9-13.8 inches) long and 10-15Ã, cm (3.9-5,9Ã, deep) wide. The flowers are small, greenish-white, with wavelengths of 5-10 cm (2.0-3.9 inches); each flower has two parts, a fall petal, six unusual beige petals, and many stamens are united into a broad, hooded mass.
Dangers
In Brazil, it is illegal to cut a Brazil nut tree. As a result, they can be found outside the production area, in the backyard of houses and near roads and roads. The fruit is very heavy and stiff, and they pose a serious threat to vehicles and people passing under the tree. Brazil nuts are submerged in fresh water, which can cause blockage of waterways in the riverside.
Reproduction
Brazilian bean trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pure forests, since disturbed forests lack large bees from the Bombus genus, Centris, Epicharis, > Eulaema and Xylocopa which are the only ones able to pollinate tree flowers, with different bee genera being the main pollinators in different areas, and different times of the year. Brazil nuts have been harvested from plantations, but production is low and currently not economically feasible.
The fruit takes 14 months to mature after pollination of flowers. The fruit itself is a large capsule with a diameter of 10-15Ã,® (3.9-5.9Ã, inch), resembling a coconut endocarp in size and weighing up to 2 kg (4.4 pounds). It has a hard, 8-12 mm thick shell (0.31-0.47 inches) thick, containing eight to four 4-5 cm long (1.6-2.0 inch) triangular seeds ("Brazil nuts") packed like an orange segment.
The capsule contains a small hole at one end, which allows a large rodent like agouti to chew it open. They then eat some seeds inside while burying others for later use; some of which can germinate into a new Brazilian bean tree. Most of the seeds are "planted" by agoutis in shady places, and young chicks may have to wait years, in dormancy, in order for the trees to fall and sunlight to reach them, when it begins to grow again. Capuchin apes have been reported to open Brazil nuts using stones as a foundation.
Nomenclature
Regardless of their name, Brazil's most significant Brazil nuts exporter is not Brazil but Bolivia, where they are called
Although this is commonly called Brazil nut , in the botanical term it is seed of this fruit tree. For a botanist, nuts are hard-shelled fruit. (Examples of botanical beans are seeds or seeds).
In North America, Brazil nuts are sometimes known by the nickname "toes of negroes", although the term is no longer favored because the public use of racial insults became increasingly unacceptable in the 1960s. They can be seen being sold in the market by this name in a scene from the 1922 Stan Laurel movie The Pest .
Production of nuts
In 2014, the global production of Brazil nuts (in the shell) is 95,000 tons, the remaining consistent total annual since 2009. The largest producers are Bolivia (47% of the world total) and Brazil (40%), and the United States is the largest importer, with 9% of world production volume.
Effect of harvest
Brazil nuts for international trade can come from wild collections and not from plantations. This has been advanced as a model to generate income from tropical forests without destroying them. Nuts are collected by migrant workers known as castanheiros .
Analysis of tree age in harvested areas shows that moderate and intense gathering feeds on so many seeds that there is not enough left to replace older trees when they die. Sites with light-gathering activities have many young trees, while sites with intense gathering practices barely have young trees.
Statistical tests were conducted to determine what environmental factors may contribute to the lack of younger trees. The most consistent effect found is the level of collection activity on a particular site. A computer model predicts the size of a tree in which people choose all nuts matches the size data of trees collected from physical sites that experience heavy harvest.
Usage
Nutrition
Brazil nuts are 14% protein, 12% carbohydrates, and 66% fat by weight; 85% of their calories come from fat, and the amount of 100 grams provides 656 total calories. The fat component is 23% saturated, 38% monounsaturated, and 32% polyunsaturated. Because of its high unsaturated fat content, especially the omega-6 fatty acids, the peeled Brazil peanuts can quickly become rancid.
Nutrition, Brazil nuts are an excellent source (& gt; 19% of Daily Value, DV) of dietary fiber (30% DV) and various dietary vitamins and minerals. 100 grams (75% of one cup) of Brazil nuts contain thiamin rich (54% DV), vitamin E (38% DV), magnesium (106% DV), phosphorus (104% DV), manganese (57% DV) and zinc (43% DV) (right table). Brazil nuts may be the richest source of selenium diet, with an ounce portion (28 g) of 6 nuts that supply 774% DV. This is 10 times the recommended US Dietary Benefit, even higher than the Tolerable Intake Level, although the amount of selenium in a nuts collection varies greatly.
The European Union has enacted strict rules on the import of Brazilian Brazil nuts in its shell, since the shells have been found to contain high levels of aflatoxin, which can lead to liver cancer.
Brazil nuts contain small amounts of radium, a radioactive element, about 1-7 nCi/kg or 40-260 Bq/kg, about 1000 times higher than in some other common foods. According to Oak Ridge Associated Universities, this is not because of the high levels of radium on the ground, but because of the "vast tree root system."
Brazil nuts are a common ingredient in mixed beans. Due to their large size, they tend to rise upward on the involuntary vibrations that may be encountered during transportation, eg granular convection, which for this reason is often called the "Brazil nut effect."
Brazil peanut oil
Brazilian peanut oil contains 75% unsaturated fatty acids mainly composed of oleic acid and linolenic acid, as well as fat-soluble fitosterols, beta-sitosterol, and fat E.
The following table presents the composition of fatty acids in Brazilian peanut oil:
Other uses
In addition to the use of its food, Brazilian peanut oil is also used as a lubricant in hours, to paint artists, and in the cosmetics industry. Brazilian bean scallops should be used as decorative jewelry by indigenous tribes in Bolivia, although no examples still exist. Because of its hardness, Brazilian pea shells are often smoothed and used as abrasive materials to polish such as metal and even ceramics (in the same way using rouge jewelry).
Wood
Wood from Brazilian bean trees (not to be confused with Brazilwood) has excellent quality, but tree felling is prohibited by law in the three producing countries (Brazil, Bolivia and Peru). Illegal logging and land clearing are a continuing threat.
![Raw Coconut and Brazil Nut Truffles [Vegan] - One Green Planet](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v4_vwEQvaLuE0-tn7V2cGzUnOTUSEi3w5noJq9f_KGm2OA50yVXan8uuXiTo7j6gAXU-AQcq4YJmxaXkLXeQwT5677niQ9muN5ylip1_487UyMH6DCfvSiYBWo6Ayx8S31ZCssjy7e=s0-d "Raw Coconut and Brazil Nut Truffles [Vegan] - One Green Planet")
See also
- Brazilian peanut cake
- List of culinary beans
- The official list of rare Brazilian flora
- Granular convection
References
External links
- The intensive harvest 'threatens Brazil nuts in the future'
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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