Cupuaçu Butter - Ecology and Popular Uses

Cupuaçu Butter - (Theobroma grandiflorum, Malvaceae)

POPULAR USES

For the most part, only the fruit pulp of cupuaçu is commonly consumed, in the form of juices, ice creams, creams, and sweets. The removal of the pulp from the seeds is rather laborious and performed with scissors. In some regions the seeds are fermented, dried in the sun, roasted, ground in a mortar, and used as chocolate (also called cupulate). In general, seeds are a byproduct of processing the pulp and are underutilized and thrown away. However, because there is a growing interest of the pharmaceutical industry to acquire the butter of cupuaçu, the fruit pulp industries and cooperatives are beginning to separate and process the seeds in larger quantities.

ECOLOGY

Cupuaçu, a native of Amazonia, is a small tree that is 4 to 8 meters  (when cultivated) or up to 18 m high (in growing in the wild). It belongs to the same family as cacao. The fruit is very large, cylinder-shaped with rounded ends, up to 30 cm long, and has an average weight of 1.2 kilograms. At maturity the fruits fall, without the stalk, when they start releasing a characteristic odor, which indicates that they are ripe. The fruit contains a juicy and creamy pulp, with a characteristic flavor, which surrounds 20 to 30 large oval seeds. The butter of cupuaçu, similar to the "butter" of cacao but superior in quality, is extracted from the seeds and contains approximately 45% oil. On commercial plantations fruit production begins in the 3rd year and trees produce an average of 12 fruits per tree, per year, when mature. It is recommended that 180 trees be planted per hectare, which produces approximately 2148 fruits per year, 990 kg of pulp, and 443 kg of seeds (an average fruit is composed of 38.4% pulp, 17.2% seeds, and 44.4% skin). In general, 1000 kg of fresh seeds will produce 135 kg of cupuaçu butter.

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