Macadamia Nuts: Food Crop

Macadamia is a class of nine species of flowering plants and belong to the family proteaceae. This is a evergreen trees growing to 2–12 m tall. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six, lanceolate to obovate or elliptical in shape, 6–30 cm long and 2–13 cm wide. The flowers are produced in a long slight simple 5–30 cm long, the individual flowers 10–15 mm long and the color is white to pink or purple, with four tepals. The fruit is a very hard woody follicle with a pointed apex, containing one or two seeds.

The nuts are a valuable food crop. Only two of the species Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla are of viable importance.

Macadamias are greatly nutritious nuts. They have the highest amount of beneficial monounsaturated fats of any known nut. They also contain 9% protein, 9% carbohydrate, 2% dietary fiber, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, selenium, iron, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. The high content of “cushiony” palmitoleic acid plus macadamia’s high oxidative stability makes it a desirable ingredient in cosmetics, especially skincare.

Macadamia is commercially produced in Australia, South Africa, Brazil, California, Costa Rica, Israel, Kenya, Bolivia, New Zealand and Malawi. Australia is now the world’s largest commercial producer – at approximately 40,000 tonnes of nut in shell per year, with a total global production of 100,000 tonnes and Brazil nuts are also very famous.