Patawa Oil

Native to the Amazon, the palm tree Oenocarpus bataua Mart. is present in the forests of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela; in Brazil, it is more frequent in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia. An elaborate homemade method for processing the nuts is used to extract their oil, good for frying and to prepare salad dressings. With high content of amino acids and unsaturated fatty acids, it can replace olive oil in many preparations. During the Second World War, Brazil even exported some patawa oil as an alternative to olive oil. The fruit is also used to produce a “wine”, vinho de patuá, which is in fact the juice extracted from the pulp and sold at Ver-o-Peso stalls in Belém. In the cosmetic industry, the oil is used as a moisturizer in body and hair products. In folk medicine, people drink patawa oil as a laxative and to fight asthma.