Aleurites Moluccana

Scientific Name: Aleurites moluccana

Common Name: Candlenut tree

Family: The Euphorbiaceae

Names in other languages: young Creole (alèrit,nwazèt,nwa); English (candle-nut tree,belgian walnut,candleberry,varnish tree,candle nut oil tree,Indian walnut); French(noyer,noix,noyer des Indes,aleurites,noisette); German (Lichtnussbaum,Kerzennussbaum); Hawaian (kukui); Indonesian (kamiri); Italian (Albero della vernice); Luganda (kabakanjagala); Portuguese(calumbàn,noz da India); Spanish (nogal de la India,avellano criollo,avellano,arbol llorón,nuez); Trade name (tung)

General Information

Aleurites moluccanus, the candlenut, is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as candleberry, Indian walnut, kemiri, varnish tree, nuez de la India, buah keras, godou, kukui nut tree, and rata kekuna

Features of Aleurites moluccana that make it identifiable:

Bark grey-brown, fairly smooth with fine

vertical lines.

Leaves simple, variable in shape, young leaves large, up to 30 cm long, palmate, with 3-7 acuminate lobes, shining; whitish above when young,becoming green with age, with rusty stellate pubescence beneath when young that persists on veins and petiole; leaves on mature trees ovate, entire, acuminate, long-petioled.

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, almost spherical, 5 cm or more in diameter, with thick, rough, hard shell making up 64-68% of fruit; difficult to separate from kernels; containing 1-2 hard-shelled black seeds. The generic name ‘Aleurites’ comes from a Greek word ‘aleuron’, meaning ‘floury’. The Hawaiians strung nuts on sticks and used them for lighting

houses; this use of the kernels gave rise to the name ‘candle nut’.

Uses

In traditional medicine the seed is used as a laxative, pulped kernels are used in poultices to treat headache, fevers, ulcers, swollen joints and constipation, the bark is used to treat dysentery, the bark sap (mixed with coconut milk) to treat sprue,