THE ACAI SEED

Picture: Acai seeds. The natural seeds are: "Monkey's brain", brown and white. The yellow, red and green are naturally colored. Scale in centimeters.

In its native form, the Acai is a single palm with a trunk that reaches 20m in height. Native to Central America and the north of South America, it is found in low areas such as the edges of rivers and platos.

The trunk os the Acai is used to make the wooden floors and lining of typical houses called ' barracoes'. the palmito, the juice or wine of the acai, are additional products derived from it. Workers collect the clusters by climbing the palms, using their feet to reach the top.

Origin of the name

According to legend, the Acai name was derived from the story of Iaca, a native woman who was the daughter of a chieftain. Because the tribe lacked food, the chieftain declared that they should kill every child born to it in order to spare them from suffering the pain of starvation. Iaca became pregnant, and after she had a son, the chieftain had a fulfill his own order. He had the child killed and buried closed to the tribe.    One day Iaca, crying over the death of her son, went to visit his grave and saw a palm beginning to grow there. Every day, Iaca went to see the palm, and when it was grown, she saw that the apparition of her son in place of the palm. When she hugged her son, she saw that the apparition was the palm and she died.     When the chieftain was informed that his daughter had died, he went there and saw her embracing the palm. The tribe began to eat the fruit of the palm, and in homage to his daughter, the chieftain called the palm ' Acai' , his daughter name's spelled backwards. And from that time on the tribe never again lacked food, having discovered a new source of it in the Acai.