Caryocar Brasiliense - Use By Humans and Status

Use By Humans and Status

Pequi pulp is a very popular food in Goiás and Minas Gerais, eaten by itself raw or prepared or used as an ingredient in cooking or to flavor beverages. Pequi with rice and chicken is especially popular among locals; tourists often find the unique rich flavor of pequi too strong and the dish too filling for their taste. Pequi pulp will tarnish silver cutlery and if eaten raw the fruit is best enjoyed out of hand. Care must be taken to gently scrape the pulp off the pit using one's teeth: The spines can detach and hurt the mouth, causing considerable pain and being difficult to remove.

The pits with spines and remaining pulp can be left to dry in the sun for two days or so. Afterwards, the spines can be scraped off with a knife or stick, and the pit can be cracked open to extract the seed. From the latter, the edible pequi oil is extracted commercially. They can also be roasted like peanuts and eaten with salt as a rich snack; in fact, if anything they are more popular than Brazil nuts locally.

Nearly every part of the tree is usable for food, medical or construction purposes. Pequi occupies an important role in the culture of indigenous people in Brazil's Cerrado region. Traditionally, rural Brazilians plant pequi trees around villages; the seed take a long time to germinate so that new trees must be planted ever so often for the supply not to cease. Demand for the fruit has risen in recent decades while habitat has been destroyed, putting the stocks under strain. One report writes:

"The pequi is the main symbol of this de-structuring of the economy. The pequi is habitually consumed by the population in the Cerrado zone and is deeply rooted in the regional culture and cooking. For the Mineiros, the Cerrado inhabitants of Minas Gerais, the pequi does not belong to anyone, because it belongs to all. Therefore, they maintain their ancestral right to take it wherever it is, in public or private land, fenced in land or unfenced land, etc., wherever it is, the pequi was always "accessible" to the regional society. Since the sixties, due to logging and installation on a wide scale of eucalyptus plantations, the pequi and all that it represents are under a serious threat. So much so, that at the market in Curvelo we did not find any pequis for sale. Some trades people commented on the difficulty they have in obtaining this fruit, which was previously so accessible."

Also, given the importance of bats and perhaps birds for pollination, removal of native woodland is liable to have long-term negative impacts on fruit yield even if no C. brasiliense trees are physically harmed. Conserving pollinator habitat is probably crucial for rich yields of the valuable fruits and other produce.