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Cashew nuts turn up sparingly in Yagua necklaces. Their trees are not abundant in their area and the nuts have greater value as food.
The cashew, Anacardium occidentale, an evergreen tree from tropical America produces a fruit consisting of two parts. A fleshy pear-shaped swollen stalk known as the cashew apple yields an indelible ink for paints. A greenish-brown kidney-shaped nut is the comestible that we know as the cashew. Though very astringent when raw, all commercial cashews are roasted before sale.
The caustic oil of the nutÕs shell, extracted with solvents or live steam, is used industrially and medicinally. In India women who crack and shell the nuts manually protect their hands by dipping them in lime and linseed or castor oil.2
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