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CASHEW

Cashew

Anacardium occidentale

MEDICINAL BENEFITS

Seed

  • Cashew nutshell oil is an anti-hypertensive, used for blood sugar problems

  • Kidney issues

  • Cholera, corn, and warts 

  • The kernel is a demulcent and emollient and used for diarrhoea

  • The resinous juice of seeds is used for mental derangement, heart palpitation, and rheumatism and to cure the loss of memory

Root

  • A root infusion is a great purgative

Leaves

  • The buds and young leaves are used for skin diseases

Sap

  • Syrup is a good remedy for coughs and colds

Fruit

  • Apple juice is effective for the treatment of syphilis

  • A diuretic and is used for cholera or kidney troubles

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

  • It has been intercropped with cowpea, groundnuts, and horse gram 

  • It grows well on poor sandy soils near the coast and is beneficial for soil erosion

  • Plants are often used as a support for growing cultivated vanilla

OTHER USES

  • Primarily cultivated for its nuts, cashews 

  • The cashew apple is also fresh and often mixed in fruit salads 

  • A drink is prepared from the juice, sweets and jams can also be prepared from it

  • Young shoots and leaves are eaten fresh or cooked 

  • The cake remaining after oil has been extracted from kernels and serves as animal food, such as poultry feed 

  • The pulp from the wood is used to fabricate corrugated and carboard boxes

  • The bark contains an acrid sap that become black when exposed to air, this is used as indelible ink in marking and printing linens and cottons 

  • The resin is also used as a varnish and preservative for fishnets and flux for solder metals 

  • The gum can also be used as an adhesive

  • Has insecticidal properties

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