Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) refers to a South American tree of the monotypic genus Bertholletia in the family Lecythidaceae as well as the tree's commercially-harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. The fruit and its nutshell – containing the edible nut – are relatively large and weigh as much as 2kg (4.4lb) in total. As food, Brazil nuts are notable for diverse content of micronutrients, especially a high amount of selenium. The wood of the Brazil nut tree is prized for its quality in carpentry, flooring, and heavy construction.
In 2024, the world production of Brazil nuts was 79,736 tonnes, with Brazil and Bolivia combined accounting for 87% of the total.
Common names
Brazil nut fruit attached to branch
In Portuguese-speaking countries, like Brazil, they are variously called "castanha-do-brasil" (meaning "chestnut from Brazil" in Portuguese), "castanha-do-pará" (meaning "chestnut from Pará" in Portuguese), castanha-da-amazônia, castanha-do-acre, "noz amazônica" (meaning "Amazonian nut" in Portuguese), noz boliviana, tocari (probably of Carib origin), and tururi (from Tupituru'ri).
In various Spanish-speaking countries of South America, Brazil nuts are called castañas de Brasil, nuez de Brasil, or castañas de Pará (or Para), and also nuez amazónica or castaña amazónica ("Amazon nut").
In North America, as early as 1896, Brazil nuts were sometimes known by the slang term "nigger toes", a vulgarity that fell out of use after the racial slur became socially unacceptable.
Description
Freshly cut Brazil nut fruitBrazil nuts in shell
The Brazil nut is a large tree, reaching 50 metres (160 feet) tall, with a trunk 1 to 2m (3 to 7ft) in diameter, making it among the largest of trees in the Amazon rainforest. It may live for 500 years or more, and can often reach a thousand years of age. The stem is straight and commonly without branches for well over half the tree's height, with a large, emergent crown of long branches above the surrounding canopy of other trees.
The bark is grayish and smooth. The leaves are dry-season deciduous, alternate, simple, entire or crenate, oblong, 20–35 centimetres (8–14in) long, and 10–15cm (4–6in) broad. The flowers are small, greenish-white, in panicles5–10cm (2–4in) long; each flower has a two-parted, deciduous calyx, six unequal cream-colored petals, and numerous stamens united into a broad, hood-shaped mass.[citation needed]
Reproduction
Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine forests, as disturbed forests lack the large-bodied bees of the genera Bombus, Centris, Epicharis, Eulaema, and Xylocopa, which are the only ones capable of pollinating the tree's flowers, with different bee genera being the primary pollinators in different areas, and different times of year. Brazil nuts have been harvested from plantations, but production is low and is currently not economically viable.
The fruit takes 14 months to mature after pollination of the flowers. The fruit itself is a large capsule10–15cm (4–6in) in diameter, resembling a coconut endocarp in size and weighing up to 2kg (4lb 7oz). It has a hard, woody shell 8–12mm (3⁄8–1⁄2in) thick, which contains eight to 24 wedge-shaped seeds 4–5cm (1+5⁄8–2in) long (the "Brazil nuts") packed like the segments of an orange, but not limited to one whorl of segments. Up to three whorls can be stacked onto each other, with the polar ends of the segments of the middle whorl nestling into the upper and lower whorls (see illustration above).
The capsule contains a small hole at one end, which enables large rodents like the agouti to gnaw it open. They then eat some of the seeds inside while burying others for later use; some of these are able to germinate into new Brazil nut trees. Most of the seeds are "planted" by the agoutis in caches during wet season, and the young saplings may have to wait years, in a state of dormancy, for a tree to fall and sunlight to reach it, when it starts growing again.
The Brazil nut is native to the Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil, eastern Colombia, eastern Peru, and eastern Bolivia. It occurs as scattered trees in large forests on the banks of the Amazon River, Rio Negro, Tapajós, and the Orinoco. The fruit is heavy and rigid; when the fruits fall, they pose a serious threat to vehicles and potential for traumatic brain injury of people passing under the tree.
In 2024, world production of Brazil nuts (in shells) was 79,736 tonnes, most of which derived from tropical Amazon forest regions of Brazil and Bolivia, which together produced 87% of the total (table).
Brazil nuts are traded both in-shell and shelled. Brazil is the main exporter of in-shell nuts, while Bolivia and Peru are the principal exporters of shelled kernels, reflecting a larger processing sector in the latter two countries. In 2024 the global Brazil nut export market was valued at about US$326 million, with Bolivia accounting for the largest share at 54% of total export value.
Environmental effects of harvesting
Since most of the production for international trade is harvested in the wild, the business arrangement has been advanced as a model for generating income from a tropical forest without destroying it. The nuts are most often gathered by migrant workers known as castañeros (in Spanish) or castanheiros (in Portuguese). Logging is a significant threat to the sustainability of the Brazil nut–harvesting industry.
Analysis of tree ages in areas that are harvested shows that moderate and intense gathering takes so many seeds that not enough are left to replace older trees as they die. Sites with light gathering activities had many young trees, while sites with intense gathering practices had nearly none.
Toxicity
Brazil nuts after shell removal
Brazil nuts are susceptible to contamination by aflatoxins, produced by fungi, once they fall to the ground. Aflatoxins can cause liver damage, including possible cancer, if consumed. Aflatoxin levels have been found in Brazil nuts during inspections that were far higher than the limits set by the EU. However, mechanical sorting and drying was found to eliminate 98% of aflatoxins; a 2003 EU ban on importation was rescinded after new tolerance levels were set.
The nuts may contain traces of radium, a radioactive element, with a kilogram of nuts containing an activity between 40 and 260 becquerels (1 and 7 nanocuries); although a small dose of radium, this exposure is higher than in common foods. According to Oak Ridge Associated Universities, elevated levels of radium in the soil do not directly cause the concentration of radium, but "the very extensive root system of the tree" can concentrate naturally occurring radioactive material, when present in the soil. Radium can be concentrated in nuts only if it is present in the soil.
Brazil nuts also contain barium, a metal with a chemical behavior quite similar to radium. While barium can have toxic side effects when ingested (weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.) the amount present in Brazil nuts is too small to have noticeable health effects.
†Percentages estimated using USrecommendations for adults, except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies.
Brazil nuts are a particularly rich source of selenium, with just 28g (0.99oz) – a standard serving of around 6 to 8 nuts, depending on size – has an average of 544 micrograms of selenium or 10 times the DV of 55 micrograms (nutrition table). However, the amount of selenium within batches of nuts may vary considerably.
The high selenium content is used as a biomarker in studies of selenium intake and deficiency. Consumption of just one Brazil nut per day over 8 weeks was sufficient to restore selenium blood levels and increase HDL cholesterol in obese women.
The lumber from Brazil nut trees (not to be confused with Brazilwood) is of excellent quality, having diverse uses from flooring to heavy construction. Logging the trees is prohibited by law in all three producing countries (Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru). Illegal extraction of timber and land clearances present continuing threats. In Brazil, cutting down a Brazil nut tree requires previous authorization from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources.
Other uses
Brazil nut oil is used as a lubricant in clocks and in the manufacturing of paint and cosmetics, such as soap and perfume.
Because of its hardness, the Brazil nutshell is often pulverized and used as an abrasive to polish materials, such as metals and ceramics, in the same way as jeweler's rouge, while charcoal from the shells can be used to purify water.
Gallery
Brazil nut tree in Amazon rainforest, Peru
Brazil nut tree, Brazil
Brazil nuts being loaded onto flatboats, early 20th century
Depiction of the Brazil nut in Scientific American Supplement, No. 598, June 18, 1887
↑Shepard, Glenn H.; Ramirez, Henri (March 2011). ""Made in Brazil": Human Dispersal of the Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa, Lecythidaceae) in Ancient Amazonia1". Economic Botany. 65 (1): 44–65. doi:10.1007/s12231-011-9151-6. S2CID43465637.
↑Ferreira, A. B. H. (1986). Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (2nd edition). Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira. p. 1729
↑Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen[Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN978-3-946292-41-8. S2CID246307410.
↑Kornsteiner-Krenn, Margit; Wagner, Karl-Heinz; Elmadfa, Ibrahim (2013). "Phytosterol content and fatty acid pattern of ten different nut types". International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research. 83 (5): 263–270. doi:10.1024/0300-9831/a000168. PMID25305221.
↑Ryan, E.; Galvin, K.; O'Connor, T. P.; Maguire, A. R.; O'Brien, N. M. (2006). "Fatty acid profile, tocopherol, squalene and phytosterol content of brazil, pecan, pine, pistachio and cashew nuts". International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 57 (3–4): 219–228. doi:10.1080/09637480600768077. PMID17127473. S2CID22030871.
123"FoodData Central". United States Department of Agriculture. 1 April 2019. All values in this table are from this database unless otherwise cited or when italicized as the simple arithmetic sum of other component columns.
↑Kornsteiner-Krenn, Margit; Wagner, Karl-Heinz; Elmadfa, Ibrahim (2013). "Phytosterol content and fatty acid pattern of ten different nut types". International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research. 83 (5): 263–270. doi:10.1024/0300-9831/a000168. PMID25305221.
1234Katragadda, Harinageswara Rao; Fullana, Andrés; Sidhu, Sukh; Carbonell-Barrachina, Ángel A. (May 2010). "Emissions of volatile aldehydes from heated cooking oils". Food Chemistry. 120 (1): 59–65. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2009.09.070.
↑"Canola oil, fat composition, 100 g". US National Nutrient Database, Release 28, United States Department of Agriculture. May 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
↑"Coconut oil, fat composition, 100 g". US National Nutrient Database, Release 28, United States Department of Agriculture. May 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
↑"Palm oil, fat composition, 100 g". US National Nutrient Database, Release 28, United States Department of Agriculture. May 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2017.