Distribution: Native of South America; now widely cultivated in Asia and Africa
Description: Trees, bark pale grey to brown; blaze dull pink. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate. Flowers polygamous, yellow, streaked with pink, in terminal prominently bracteate panicles. Fruit a reniform nut, grey, seated on a large pyriform fleshy body formed of enlarged disc and top of the pedicel; seed reniform, ascending.
Habit: Tree
Habitat: Cultivated
Flowering & Fruiting: November-April
Parts used: Fruit, seeds, root and bark
Properties & Uses: Aphrodisiac, anti-diabetic and anti-diarrheal. The cashew apple as well as the juice possesse antidiarrheal property. The juice is valued as a diuretic and is useful for treating kidney troubles and advanced cholera. It also used to treat mental derangement, morning sickness, sexual debility and smallpox.