Balubad (Cashew Apple) or Kasoy
Scientific name:  Anacardium occidentale L.
 
The cashew is native to and northeast Brazil and, in the 16th Century, Portuguese traders introduced it to Mozambique and coastal India, but only as a soil retainer to stop erosion on the coasts. It flourished and ran wild and formed extensive forests in these locations and on nearby islands, and eventually it also became dispersed in East Africa and throughout the tropical lowlands of northern South America, Central America and the West Indies. It has been more or less casually planted in all warm regions and a few fruiting specimens are found in experimental stations and private gardens in southern Florida. 
This pseudofruit (or "false fruit") is a by-product of the cashew nut industry.  The cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale L., is called marañon in most Spanish-speaking countries, but merey in Venezuela; and caju or cajueiro in Portuguese. It is generally bushy, low-branched and spreading; may reach 35 ft (10.6 m) in height and width. Its leaves, mainly in terminal clusters, are oblong-oval or obovate, 4 to 8 in (10-20 cm) long and 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) wide, and leathery. Yellowish-pink, 5-petalled flowers are borne in 6 to 10-in (15-25 cm) terminal panicles of mixed male, female and bisexual. The true fruit of the tree is the cashew nut resembling a miniature boxing-glove; consisting of a double shell containing a caustic phenolic resin in honeycomb-like cells, enclosing the edible kidney-shaped kernel. An interesting feature of the cashew is that the nut develops first and when it is full-grown but not yet ripe, its peduncle or, more technically, receptacle, fills out, becomes plump, fleshy, pear-shaped or rhomboid-to-ovate, 2 to 4 1/2 in (5-11.25 cm) in length, with waxy, yellow, red, or red-and-yellow skin and spongy, fibrous, very juicy, astringent, acid to subacid, yellow pulp. Thus is formed the conspicuous, so-called cashew apple.

Medicinal Uses: Cashew apple juice, without removal of tannin, is prescribed as a remedy for sore throat and chronic
dysentery in Cuba and Brazil. Fresh or distilled, it is a potent diuretic and is said to possess sudorific properties. The brandy is
applied as a liniment to relieve the pain of rheumatism and neuralgia.
 
 

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