Nuts are a three sided nut with white meat or flesh that consists of 70 percent fat or oil and 17 percent protein. The oil is extracted from the nuts and is commonly used in Peru and other South American countries to manufacture soap. In the Brazilian Amazon, the tree bark is brewed into tea to treat liver ailments and diseases. For centuries, the Indigeous Tribes of the rainforest have relied on Brazil Nuts as an important and significant staple of their diet. So important, that it has even been used as a trade commodity, much like money.
Indigenous Tribes eat the nuts raw, or they are grated and mixed into gruels.
In the Brazilian Amazon, the nuts are grated with the thorny stilt roots of Socratea palms into a white mush known as leite de castanha , and then stirred into manioc flour. It is a valuable source of calories, fat and protein for much of the Amazon's rural and urban peoples. With such a high oil content, Brazil Nuts will even burn like miniature candles when lit. The oil is extracted from the nuts and used by Indigenous and rural people for cooking oil, lamps, soap, and livestock feed. The husks of these seed pods have also been used in Brazilian folk medicine to brew into tea to treat stomachaches.