is cultivated in the West Indies for its "butter nuts" or "sauri 

 nuts" (4). In the Guianas, C. glabrum ( Aubl.) Pers. is known as 

 soapwood and is used for washing hair and clothing (4). Cary- 

 ocar villosum (Aubl.) Pers. likewise yields a fat similar to and 

 used as butter and in soap-making in Brazil, where its product is 

 called manteiga de pequia ("pequia butter"); in French Guiana, 

 the tree is called arbre a beurre ("butter tree") (3); it was intro- 

 duced into Malaysia in the 1920's (5), and the analysis of its 



fruits was reported (6). 



There is some evidence from our own ethnobotanical studies in 

 the Colombian Vaupes that Caryocar may have biodynamic or 

 even toxic constituents. The Tukano Indians, for example, pre- 

 pare a paste of the crushed leaves of Caryocar gracile Wittm. 

 which, when fed to dogs, causes slow death within a week. Cary- 

 ocar microcarpum Ducke appears to have insecticidal proper- 

 ties. The botanical explorer von Martius suggested that the root 

 bark of a species of Caryocar may enter into the preparation of 

 an Amazonian curare (7). 



During the course of a plant-collecting trip to the northwest- 

 ern Amazon, two of the authors (RFR and RES) observed that 

 the leaves of Caryocar microcarpum are repellent, if not toxic, 

 to leaf-cutting ants; relatively few of the insects, having attempt- 

 ed (and usually succeeded) in cutting pieces of leaf from a fresh 

 collection, exhibited random, disoriented behavior and dropped 

 leaf bits along a trail but a few yards from the site where the 

 collection of leaves had been set out to dry; scores of the ants 

 appeared to be dead or paralyzed and dying. These insects are 

 responsible for enormous crop losses throughout tropical Amer- 

 ica (8). 



In earlier literature, Caryocar is frequently cited under its 

 local names, especially those species employed in Brazil (piqui, 

 piqui'-a, piquiarana, pequi, pekea, etc.) without reference to 

 species identification; and the chemical studies that have been 

 given the genus have been concerned primarily with fats and oils 



com 



palm oils. 



The physical properties of the oils and their glyceride compo- 



determined 



248 



