The cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale L., is a small to medium-sized evergreen perennial native to northeast Brazil (Jaffee 1994; Asogwa et al. 2008). The species was introduced to distant regions such as India and East Africa as early as the 16th century (Malhotra 2008), and is now an important crop cultivated in tropical regions worldwide (Maruthadurai et al. 2012). Cashew is generally grown for its fruit, which has two connected parts: (i) the kidney-shaped nut containing the nutritious edible kernel, and (ii) the false fruit or cashew apple (the fleshy edible stalk) which can be eaten raw, used to make jam, juiced or fermented into wine (Jaffee 1994; Asogwa et al. 2008; Lundy 2012). The nut shell contains a corrosive liquid known as cashew nut shell liquid, which is widely used in automobile brake linings, paints, varnishes and insecticides, among others (Malhotra 2008).
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Vasconcelos et al. (2014) studied this question.
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