Kukui
(Aleurites moluccana)
Adopted in 1959.
A Polynesian introduced plant
species. the kukui, Aleurites
moluccana, better known as the
candlenut. The nuts of this tree
provided the ancient Hawaiians with
light, oil, relishes, and medicine. It
was adopted in 1959.
Description
Medium-sized tree, up to 20 m tall,
ornamental, with widespreading or
pendulous branches; leaves simple,
variable in shape, young leaves large,
up to 30 cm long, palmate, with 3–7
acuminate lobes, shining, while leaves
on mature trees are ovate, entire, and
acuminate, long-petioled, whitish above
when young, becoming green with age,
with rusty stellate pubescence beneath
when young, and perisiting on veins and
petiole; flowers in rusty-pubescent
panicled cymes 10–15 cm long; petals 5,
dingy white or creamy, oblong, up to 1.3
cm long; ovary 2-celled; fruit an
indehiscent drupe, roundish, 5 cm or
more in diameter, with thick rough hard
shell making up 64–68% of fruit,
difficult to separate from kernels;
containing 1 or 2 seeds. Fl. Apr.–May
(Sri Lanka).
Distribution
Native to Malaysia, Polynesia, Malay
Peninsula, Philippines and South Seas
Islands; now widely distributed in
tropics. Naturalized or cultivated in
Malagasy, Sri Lanka, southern India,
Bangladesh, Brazil, West Indies, and
Gulf Coast of United States
Uses
Seed yields 57–80% of inedible,
semi-drying oil, liquid at ordinary
temperatures, solidifying at -15°C,
containing oleostearic acid. Oil,
quicker drying than linseed oil, is used
as a wood preservative, for varnishes
and paint oil, as an illuminant, for
soap making, waterproofing paper, rubber
substitutes and insulating material.
Seeds are moderately poisonous and press
cake is used as fertilizer. Kernels when
roasted and cooked are considered
edible; may be strung as candlenuts. Oil
is painted on bottoms of small crafts to
protect against marine borers. Tung oil,
applied to cotton bolls, stops boil
weevils from eating them. Also prevents
feeding by striped cucumber beetle.
Folk Medicine
Bark used on tumors in Japan. The oil
is purgative and sometimes used like
castor oil. Kernels are laxative
stimulant, and sudorific. The irritant
oil is rubbed on scalp as a hair
stimulant. In Sumatra, pounded seeds,
burned with charcoal,are applied around
the navel forcositiveness. In Malaya,
the pulped kernel enters poultices for
headache, fevers, ulcers, and swollen
joints. In Java, the bark is used for
bloody diarrhea or dysentery. Bark juice
with coconut milk is used for sprue.
Malayans apply boiled leaves to the
temples for headache and to the pubes
for gonnorhea
Taxonomic Hierarchy
|
Kingdom |
Plantae -- Plants |
Subkingdom |
Tracheobionta -- Vascular
plants |
Superdivision |
Spermatophyta – Seed plants |
Division |
Magnoliophyta – Flowering
plants |
Class |
Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
Subclass |
Rosidae – |
Order |
Euphorbiales – |
Family |
Euphorbiaceae – Spurge
family |
Genus |
Aleurites J.R. & G.
Forst. – aleurites |
Species |
Aleurites moluccana
(L.) Willd. – Indian walnut |
Source:
Purdue University. NewCROP
|