Cashew apple juice
Encyclopedia
The cashew
Cashew
The cashew is a tree in the family Anacardiaceae. Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú. It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew nuts and cashew apples.-Etymology:The...

 tree, Anacardium occidentale L., is called marañon in most Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

-speaking countries, but merely in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

; and caju or cajueiro in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

. The true fruit of the tree is the cashew nut resembling a miniature boxing-glove; consisting of a double shell containing a caustic
Caustic
Caustic may refer to:* Causticity, the property of a substance that causes corrosion** Sodium hydroxide, sometimes called caustic soda** Potassium hydroxide, sometimes called caustic potash** Calcium oxide, sometimes called caustic lime...

 phenolic resin in honeycomb-like cells, enclosing the edible kidney-shaped kernel. An interesting feature of the cashew is that the nut develops first and when it is full-grown but not yet ripe, its peduncle or, more technically, receptacle, fills out, becomes plump, fleshy, pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....

-shaped or rhomboid
Rhomboid
Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are oblique.A parallelogram with sides of equal length is a rhombus but not a rhomboid....

-to-ovate, 2 to 4 1/2 in (5-11.25 cm) in length, with waxy, yellow, red, or red-and-yellow skin and spongy, fibrous, very juicy, astringent
Astringent
An astringent substance is a chemical compound that tends to shrink or constrict body tissues, usually locally after topical medicinal application. The word "astringent" derives from Latin adstringere, meaning "to bind fast"...

, acid
Acid
An acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...

 to subacid, yellow pulp. Thus is formed the conspicuous, so-called cashew apple.

Cashew apple juice (cashew fruit juice)

The Cashew Apples or so called Cashew Fruit, which weigh about 5 to 10 times as much as the nut
Nut
Nut may refer to:* En dash or nut, traditionally half the width of an em dash* Nut , a piece of metal wedged into a rock* Nut , the large, usually oily seed of some plants...

s. In Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the apples are still trampled by foot to extract the juice for the locally famous distilled liquor, feni
Feni
Feni may refer to:*Feni District, in Bangladesh**Feni Girls Cadet College*Feni Islands, in Papua New Guinea*Feni liquor, is a local alcoholic brew made in Goa, India*Feni River, in Bangladesh and India*Feni Rose, Indonesia TV presenter...

. In the home and, in a limited way for commercial purposes, the cashew apples are preserved in syrup in glass jars. Fresh apples are highly perishable. Various species of yeast
Yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...

 and fungi cause spoilage after the first day at room temperature
Room temperature
-Comfort levels:The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has listings for suggested temperatures and air flow rates in different types of buildings and different environmental circumstances. For example, a single office in a building has an occupancy ratio per...

. Food technologists in India have found that good condition can be maintained for 5 weeks at 32º to 35°F (0º-1.67°C) and relative humidity of 85% to 90%. In as much as the juice is astringent and somewhat acrid due to 35% tannin
Tannin
A tannin is an astringent, bitter plant polyphenolic compound that binds to and precipitates proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.The term tannin refers to the use of...

 content (in the red: less in the yellow) and 3% of an oily substance, the fruit is pressure-steamed for 5 to 15 minutes before candying or making into jam or chutney
Chutney
Chutney is a a condiment used in South Asian cuisine that usually contains a spice and vegetable mix.Chutneys are wet or dry, having a coarse to fine texture. The Anglo-Indian loan word refers to fresh and pickled preparations indiscriminately, with preserves often sweetened. At least several...

 or extracting the juice for carbonated beverages
Carbonation
Carbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in water. The process usually involves carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which cause the solution to "fizz." This effect is seen in carbonated...

, syrup
Syrup
In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...

 or wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

. Efforts are made to retain as much as possible of the ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid is a naturally occurring organic compound with antioxidant properties. It is a white solid, but impure samples can appear yellowish. It dissolves well in water to give mildly acidic solutions. Ascorbic acid is one form of vitamin C. The name is derived from a- and scorbutus , the...

. Food technologists in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 recently worked out an improved process for producing the locally popular candied, sun-dried cashew apples. Failure to remove the tannin from the juice may account for the nutritional deficiency in heavy imbibers of cashew apple wine in Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

, for tannin prevents the body's full assimilation of protein.

Scientific research on the cashew apple

1. The cashew rich in Anacardic acid which helps stop the formation of breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...

 (BT-20 Breast Carcinomas).; (Itokawa et al.,1978—87; LLtokawa et al., 1989; Kubo et al., 1993 a,b)

2. The cashew contains "cadol", a substance which effectively blocks the growth of Hela Epithelioid Cervix Carcinoma Cells in the vagina
Vagina
The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...

. Moreover, it acts as an antiseptic
Antiseptic
Antiseptics are antimicrobial substances that are applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putrefaction...

 and kills worms.

3. The phenol
Natural phenol
Natural phenols, bioavailable phenols, plant phenolics, low molecular weight phenols or phenoloids are a class of natural products. They are small molecules containing one or more phenolic group. These molecules are smaller in size than polyphenols, containing less than 12 phenolic groups...

 compounds in the cashew nut can slow down the release of "tyrosinase
Tyrosinase
Tyrosinase also known as monophenol monooxygenase is an enzyme that catalyses the oxidation of phenols and is widespread in plants and animals...

" enzyme which is involved in the formation of the dark pigment melanin
Melanin
Melanin is a pigment that is ubiquitous in nature, being found in most organisms . In animals melanin pigments are derivatives of the amino acid tyrosine. The most common form of biological melanin is eumelanin, a brown-black polymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acids, and their reduced forms...

 causing freckles and blemishes.

4. The pulpy part of the cashew apple is used to produce the juice. In the form of juice, it can relieve scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...

 due to its high level of vitamin C
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...

 (up to 20,000 ppm or five times more than oranges), which is a substance capable of capturing free radicals.

5. Since the cashew is rich in vitamin C and mineral salts, it is used as a coadjutant in the treatment of premature aging of the skin.
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