Cashew Nuts

Cashew nut is delicately sweet yet crunchy and delicious is packed with energy, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins that are essential for robust health. Cashew, or “caju” in Portuguese, is one of the popular ingredients in sweet as well savory dishes worldwide.

Botanically, cashew is an tropical evergreen tree belonging to the Anacardiaceae family, in the genus:Anacardium. Scientific name: Anacardium occidentale. It bears numerous, edible, pear shaped false fruits or “accessory fruits'” called "cashew apples. Cashew nut which actually is a “true-fruit”, firmly attaching to bottom end of cashew-apple, appearing like a clapper in the bell. Botanically, this tiny, bean shaped, grey “true fruit” is a drupe, featuring hard outer shell enclosing a single edible kernel known commercially as “cashew nut.”

The exterior shell of cashew nut contains a phenolic resin”urushiol” which is a potent skin irritant and that's why it is roasted under high flame in order to destroy urushiol resin, and then underlying edible cashew kernel is extracted for consumption.

• Cashew nuts are high calorie food,i.e, 100g of nuts provide 553 calories.
• Cashew nuts are packed with soluble dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and numerous health-promoting phyto-chemicals.
• Cashews are rich in “heart-friendly” monounsaturated-fatty acids like oleic, and palmitoleic acids. These essential fatty acids help lower harmful LDL-cholesterol while increasing good HDL cholesterol in the blood.
• A handful of cashew nuts a day in the diet would provide enough of minerals as cashews are loaded with manganese, potassium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.
• Cashews hold in a small amount of zea-xanthin, an important pigment flavonoid antioxidant, which is selectively absorbed into the retinal macula lutea in the eyes. It provides antioxidant and protective UV ray filtering functions and helps prevent age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) in the elderly