Aleurites moluccanus
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Aleurites moluccanus, commonly known as candlenut, Indian walnut or, in Hawaii, kukui,<ref name="GRIN"/> is a tree in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. It grows to about Template:Convert tall and produces drupe fruit.
First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, the species' origin is unclear due to its spread by humans, but it can be found in many tropical rainforests and gallery forests. Various parts of the plant have regional or cultural uses.
Description
The candlenut tree grows to a height of up to Template:Convert, with wide spreading or pendulous branches. The leaves are pale green, simple, and ovate or heart-shaped on mature shoots, but may be three-, five-, or seven-lobed on saplings.<ref name="COOPER">Template:Cite book</ref> They are up to Template:Convert long and Template:Convert wide and young leaves are densely clothed in rusty or cream stellate hairs. Petioles measure up to Template:Convert long and stipules about Template:Convert.<ref name="RFK">Template:Cite web</ref>
The flowers are small; male flowers measure around 5 mm in diameter, female flowers about 9 mm.<ref name="RFK"/>
The fruit is a drupe about Template:Convert in diameter with one or two lobes; each lobe has a single soft, white, oily kernel contained within a hard shell about Template:Convert in diameter.<ref name=COOPER/> These nuts, upon germinating, produce cotyledons or seed leaves up to Template:Cvt long by Template:Cvt wide.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Taxonomy
This plant was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum (1753) as Jatropha moluccana.<ref name="IPNI2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Sp. Pl. 2: 1006</ref> It was renamed as Aleurites moluccana by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in an 1805 edition of Species Plantarum,<ref name="biodiversitylibrary.org" /><ref>Sp. Pl. 4: 590</ref> but the ending was corrected to match the gender of the Latin genus Aleurites moluccanus.
While there are many online references to the spelling "Aleurites moluccana", this is not accepted by botanical authorities such as the International Plant Names Index or the Germplasm Resources Information Network.
Etymology
The genus name derives from the Ancient Greek Template:Wikt-lang (Template:Lang), meaning "flour" or "meal", and refers to the new growth which appears to be dusted with flour. The species epithet means "from the Moluccas".<ref name=COOPER/>
Distribution and habitat
Its native range is impossible to establish precisely because of early spread by humans, and the tree is now distributed throughout the New and Old World tropics including the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Papuasia, Queensland, and some islands of the western Pacific Ocean.Template:Citation needed
The candlenut was first domesticated on the islands of Southeast Asia. Remains of harvested candlenuts have been recovered from archaeological sites in Timor and Morotai in eastern Indonesia, dated to around 13,000 and 11,000 BP, respectively.<ref name="BlenchFruits">Template:Cite journal</ref> Archaeological evidence of candlenut cultivation is also found in Neolithic sites of the Toalean culture in southern Sulawesi dated to around 3,700 to 2,300 BP.<ref name="Simanjuntak2006">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hasanuddin2018">Template:Cite book</ref> Candlenuts were widely introduced into the Pacific islands by early Austronesian voyagers and became naturalized to high volcanic islands.<ref name="Larrue2010">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Weisler2015">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Kirch1989">Template:Cite journal</ref>
A. moluccanus grows in tropical rainforests and gallery forests. It is a very fast-growing tree and often appears in disturbed rainforest. In Australia the altitudinal range is from sea level to Template:Convert.<ref name="RFK"/>
Ecology
In Australia the seeds are eaten by rodents, in particular the giant white-tailed rat. The broken shells of the fruits are often found underneath the trees.<ref name="RFK"/>
The larvae of the coleopteran Agrianome fairmairei feed on dead candlenut wood,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and are considered a delicacy in New Caledonia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Toxicity
Because the seeds contain saponin, phorbol, and toxalbumins, they are mildly toxic when raw,<ref name="Scott" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> inducing a laxative effect.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Heat treatment reduces the toxicity of the protein component.<ref name=":1" />
Uses
Culinary
While mildly toxic when raw,<ref name="Scott">Template:Cite book</ref> the nut is appreciated in many cultures once cooked or toasted. In Indonesian and Malaysian cuisine, it is commonly used in curries,<ref name="HCO2">Template:Cite book</ref> and on the Indonesian island of Java, it is used to make a thick sauce that is eaten with vegetables and rice.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
A Hawaiian condiment known as ʻinamona is made from roasted kukui mixed into a paste with salt. ʻInamona is a key ingredient in traditional Hawaiian poke.<ref name="Laudan">Template:Cite book</ref>
Other uses
The kernel is the source of candlenut oil,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> which has no known toxicity and is not an irritant, even to the eyes.<ref>Price, Len. Carrier Oils For Aromatherapy And Massage, 4th edition 2008 p 119. Template:ISBN</ref>Template:Better source needed
In ancient Hawaiʻi, kukui fruits were burned to provide light. The nuts were strung in a row on a palm leaf midrib, lit on one end, and burned one by one every fifteen minutes or so. This led to their use as a measure of time. Hawaiians extracted the oil from the nut and burned it in a stone oil lamp called a Template:Lang (light, darkness goes) with a wick made of kapa cloth.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Hawaiians had many other uses for the tree, including leis from the shells, leaves, and flowers; ink for tattoos from charred nuts; a varnish with the oil; and fishermen would chew the nuts and spit them on the water to break the surface tension and remove reflections, giving them greater underwater visibility. A red-brown dye made from the inner bark was used on kapa and aho (Touchardia latifolia cordage). A coating of kukui oil helped preserve ʻupena (fishing nets).<ref name=":0" /> The nohona waʻa (seats) and pale (gunwales) of waʻa (outrigger canoes) were made from the wood.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The trunk was sometimes used to make smaller canoes used for fishing.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The oil can often be found in Indonesian hair-care products.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Fiji, where the nut is called sikeci, the oil is used in cosmetic products.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Wealthier members of the Batak people have their coffins (Karo: pelangkah) made from the wood, carved in the shape of a boat whose bow is decorated with the carved head of a hornbill, a horse, or a mythical beast known as a singa.Template:Citation needed
In the Philippines, the fruit and tree are traditionally known as lumbang,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> after which Lumban, a lakeshore town in Laguna province, is named. Before the intrusion of non-native species, it was frequently used as a property-line manager because its silvery underleaf makes the tree easy to distinguish from a distance.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, the Dusun tribes call the fruit godou and use it in tattoo-making as an optional ingredient for the ink.<ref>Lindung, Malinggou (2016) Lahan Mongimpapak Kadazan-Dusun. Kadazan Language Foundation, Sabah (in Kadazan)</ref>
As recently as 1993 on the outlying islands of the kingdom of Tonga, candlenuts were chewed into sweet-scented emollient used during a traditional funerary ritual. They were used for making various sweet-smelling oils for the skin.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> In Australia, Aboriginal Australians used them for a variety of similar purposes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="MAIDEN">Template:Cite book</ref>
In Flores near Ende, it is called kéloré and used as a mordant for dyes with Morinda citrifolia (mengkudu).<ref name="texttrip">Template:Cite web</ref>
On the island of Rapa Iti in the Austral Islands, fish hooks were carved from the endocarp of the candlenut as a result of lacking other suitable material. These fish hooks were quite small and were used for catching certain species of fish, such as Leptoscarus vaigiensis (Template:Lang) and Stegastes fasciolatus (Template:Lang).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In culture
The plant is also known by the common names candleberry, Indian walnut, kemiri, varnish tree, nuez de la India, buah keras, godou, kukui tree, and rata kekuna.
The Proto-Austronesian word for candlenut is reconstructed as *kamiri, with modern cognates including Hanunó'o, Iban, and Sundanese muncang; Javanese and Malay kemiri;<ref name="Kamus1"> For comparison:
</ref> and Tetun kamii, however the Oceanian words for candlenut is believed to be derived from Proto-Austronesian *CuSuR which became Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tuhuR, originally meaning "string together, as beads", referring to the construction of the candlenut torches. It became Proto-Eastern-Malayo-Polynesian and Proto-Oceanic *tuRi which is then reduplicated. Modern cognates including Fijian, Tongan, Rarotongan, and Niue tui-tui; and Hawaiian kui-kui or kukui.<ref name="blusttrusell">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Malay language in bothTemplate:What has another name given to the nut which is buah keras (literally "hard fruit").<ref name="Kamus2">* Template:Cite dictionary
- Template:Cite dictionary</ref><ref name="HCO2" />
In Uganda, the seed is referred to as kabakanjagala, meaning "the king loves me".<ref>Cultural Impressions Template:Webarchive</ref>
In Maui, the kukui is a symbol of enlightenment, protection, and peace.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kamapuaʻa, the hog-man fertility demigod, was said to be able to transform into a kukui tree.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> One of the legends told of Kamapuaʻa: one day, a man beat his wife to death and buried her beneath Kamapuaʻa while he was in tree form.Template:Citation needed Kukui was named the state tree of Hawaii on 1 May 1959<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> due to its multitude of uses.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> It also represents the island of Molokaʻi, whose symbolic color is the silvery green of the kukui leaf.Template:Citation needed
Gallery
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Flowers -
Young leaves demonstrating their hairy character -
Inflorescence -
Candlenuts (kemiri) from Indonesia -
Sawn timber, Lombok, Indonesia -
Wood handicraft made from timber of this species, Lombok, Indonesia
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See also
References
External links
- Template:Cite web
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- Aleurites moluccana (L.) Willd Medicinal Plant Images Database (School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University) Template:In lang Template:In lang
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- Aleurites moluccana usage of name
- Linnaeus 1805 Species Plantarum Volume 4, full text free download from BHL