Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Oenocarpus bataua

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Palms and People in the Amazon

Part of the book series: Geobotany Studies ((GEOBOT))

  • 817 Accesses

Abstract

This widespread palm in both uplands and the higher parts of floodplains provides many useful products the most important of which is the fruits which are used to make a rich juice. As many as 2,000 fruits can be produced on a single tree. Throughout the palm’s extensive range from the mouth of the Amazon to the Andean foothills up to 1,400 m, the fruits are soaked and then sieved to render a delicious, calorie-laden juice. Rich in oil, the juice is a significant source of calories in some areas as noted by Victorian naturalists. The oil is similar to olive oil and was once a brisk trade item. The purple, protein-rich juice is consumed in both rural and urban areas. The fruits are used in various folk remedies while the long black spines emanating from the leaf bases of young specimens are used as blowgun darts. Indigenous people use the hard wood obtained from the trunk to make blowguns and clubs as well as to make fish weirs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Albert B, Milliken W (2009) Uhiri a: a terra-floresta Yanomami. Instituto Sociambental (ISA)/Institut de Recherche pour le Devéloppement, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson AB (1977) Os nomes e usos de palmeiras entre uma tribo de índios Yanomama. Acta Amazon 7(1):5–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson AB (1978) The use of palms among a tribe of Yanomama Indians. Principes 22:30–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Balick MJ (1980) Economic botany of the Guahibo, I: Palmae. Econ Bot 33(4):361–376

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balick MJ (1981) Jessenia bataua and Oenocarpus species: native Amazonian palms as new sources of edible oil. In: Pryde EH, Princen LH, Mukherjee KO (eds) New sources of fats and oils. American Oil Chemists’ Society, Champaign, pp 141–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Balick MJ (1984) Ethnobotany of palms in the Neotropics. Adv Econ Bot 1:9–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Balick MJ, Gershoff SN (1981) Nutritional evaluation of the Jessenia bataua palm: source of high quality protein and oil from tropical America. Econ Bot 35(3):261–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balslev H, Barford A (1987) Ecuadorian palms- an overview. Opera Botanica 92:17–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Bodmer RE (1991) Strategies of seed dispersal and seed predation in Amazonian ungulates. Biotropica 23(3):255–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boom BM (1988) The Chácobo Indians and their palms. In: Balick MJ (ed) The palm, tree of life: biology, utilization and conservation, Advances in economic botany 6. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, pp 91–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Brücher H (1989) Useful plants of Neotropical origin and their wild relatives. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cabalzar A, Lima FCT, Lopes M (2005) Peixe e gente no Alto Rio Tiquié: conhecimentos Tukano e Tuyuka, ictiologia, etnologia. Instituto Sociambental, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  • Cárdenas D, Politis GG (2000) Territorio, movilidad, etnobotánica y manejo del bosque de los Nukak orientales. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Cientificas, Bogotá

    Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho MR, Reesink EB (1993) Ecologia e sociedade: uma breve introdução aos Kanamari. In: Sociedades indígenas e transformações ambientais. Núcleo de Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, pp 113–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Clement CR, Alfaia SS, Iriarte-Martel JH et al (1997) Fruteiras nativas e exóticas. In: Noda H, Souza LAG (eds) Duas décadas de contribuições do INPA à pesquisa agronômica no trópico úmido. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia, Manaus, pp 111–129

    Google Scholar 

  • Coimbra CEA (1985) Estudos de ecologia humana entre os Suruí do Parque Indígena Aripuanã, Rondônia: elementos de etnozoologia. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Série Antropologia 2:9–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Darnet SH, Silva LHM, Rodrigues AMC, Lins RT (2011) Nutritional composition, fatty acid and tocopherol contents of buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) and patawa (Oenocarpus bataua) fruit pulp from the Amazon region. Cienc Tecnol Aliment 31(2):488–491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis EW, Yost JJ (1983) The ethnobotany of the Waorani of eastern Ecuador. Bot Museum Leaflets Har 29(3):159–217

    Google Scholar 

  • Descola P (1994) In the society of nature: a native ecology in Amazonia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • DeWalt SJ, Bourdy G, Michel LRC, Guenevo C (1999) Ethnobotany of the Tacana: quantitative inventories of two permanent plots of northwestern Bolivia. Econ Bot 53(3):237–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson P (1996) La griffe des aïeux: marquage du corps et démarquages ethniques chez les Matis d’Amazonie. Peeters, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson P (2001) Myth and material culture: Matis blowguns, palm trees, and ancestor spirits. In: Rival L, Whitehead N (eds) Beyond the visible and material: the Amerindianization of society in the work of Peter Rivière. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 101–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujisaka S, Escobar G, Veneklaas EJ (2000) Weedy fields and forests: interactions between land use and the composition of plant communities in the Peruvian Amazon. Agric Ecosyst Environ 78:175–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore MP, Endress BA, Horn CM (2013) The socio-cultural importance of Mauritia flexuosa palm swamps (aguajales) and implications for multi-use management in two Maijuna communities of the Peruvian Amazon. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 9:29–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammen MC (1992) El manejo del mundo: naturaleza y sociedad entre los Yukuna de la Amazonia colombiana. Tropenbos, Bogotá

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson A (2002) Evolution and ecology of palms. The New York Botanical Garden Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber J (1910) Mattas e madeiras amazonicas. Boletim do Museu Paraense de Historia Natural e Ethnographia 6:91–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson A (2003) Families of the forest: the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn F (1991) Palms as key swamp forest resources in Amazonia. For Ecol Manage 38:133–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn F, Granville J (1992) Palms in forest ecosystems of Amazonia, Ecological studies 95. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn F, Moussa F (1994) Las palmeras del Perú: colecciones, patrones de distribución, nombres vernáculos, Utilizaciones. IFEA (Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos), Lima

    Google Scholar 

  • Macía MJ (2004) Multiplicity in palm uses by the Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador. Bot J Linn Soc 144:149–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maroni P (1988) Noticias autenticas del famoso rio Marañón y misión apostólica de la Compañia de Jesús de la Provincia de Quito en los dilatados bosques de dicho rio, escribialas por los años de 1738. IIAP, Iquitos

    Google Scholar 

  • Mee M (1988) In search of flowers of the Amazon forests. Nonesuch Expeditions, Woodbridge, Suffolk

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesa LI (2011) Etnobotánica de palmas en la Amazonia Colombiana: comunidades indígenas Piapocos del río Guaviare, como estudio de caso. Masters’ thesis, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias, Bogotá

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller C (2002) Fruit production of the ungurahua palm (Oenocarpus bataua subsp. Bataua, Arecaceae) in an indigenous managed reserve. Econ Bot 56(2):165–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller-Weisberger J (2000) A Huaorani myth of the first Miiyabu (ayahuasca vine). In: Luna LE, White SF (eds) Ayahuasca reader: encounters with the Amazon’s sacred vine. Synergetic Press, Santa Fe, pp 41–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Milliken W, Albert B (1997) The construction of a new Yanomami round-house. J Ethnobiol 17(2):215–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Montúfar R, Laffargue A, Pintaud J et al (2010) Oenocarpus bataua Mart. (Arecaceae): rediscovering a source of high oleic vegetable oil from Amazonia. J Am Oil Chem Soc 87:167–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mora S (2001) Suelos negros y sociedad: un sistema agrícola de entonces, un sistema agrícola de ahora? In: Hiraoka M, Mora S (eds) Desarrollo sostenible en la Amazonía: ¿mito o realidad? Ediciones Abya Yala, Quito, pp 31–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Morcote-Ríos G, Bernal R (2001) Remains of palms (Palmae) at archaeological sites in the New World: a review. Bot Rev 67(3):309–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Narváez A, Stauffer F (1999) Products derived from palms at the Puerto Ayacucho markets in Amazonas State, Venezuela. Palms 43(3):122–129

    Google Scholar 

  • Navarro G, Maldonado M (2004) Geografía ecológica de Bolivia: vegetación y ambientes acuáticos. Centro de Ecología Simón I Patiño, Cochabamba

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver J (2001) The archaeology of forest foraging and agricultural production in Amazonia. In: McEwan C, Barretto C, Neves E (eds) Unknown Amazon: culture and nature in ancient Brazil. British Museum Press, London, pp 50–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch C, Inuma JC, Jong W, Unruh J (1985) Amazonian agroforestry: a market-oriented system in Peru. Agrofor Syst 3:47–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pesce C (1985) Oil palms and other oilseeds of the Amazon. Reference Publications, Algonac

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinedo-Vasquez M, Zarin D, Jipp P, Chota-Inuma J (1990) Use-values of tree species in a communal forest reserve in northeast Peru. Conserv Biol 4(4):405–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto GP (1951) O óleo de patauá. Boletim Técnico do Instituto Agronômico do Norte 23:67–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Politis G (1996a) Moving to produce: Nukak mobility and settlement patterns in Amazonia. World Archaeol 27(3):492–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Politis G (1996b) Nukak. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas, Bogotá

    Google Scholar 

  • Politis G (2001) Foragers of the Amazon: the last survivors or the first to succeed? In: McEwan C, Barretto C, Neves E (eds) Unknown Amazon: culture and nature in ancient Brazil. British Museum Press, London, pp 26–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Politis G (2007) Nukak: ethnoarchaeology of an Amazonian people. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek

    Google Scholar 

  • Rezaire A, Robinson J, Bereau D et al (2014) Amazonian palm Oenocarpus bataua (“patawá”): chemical and biological antioxidant activity- phytochemical composition. Food Chem 149:62–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rival L (1998) Domestication as a historical and symbolic process: wild gardens and cultivated forest in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In: Balée W (ed) Advances in historical ecology. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 232–250

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodrigues JB (1903) Sertum palmarum brasiliensium: relation des palmiers nouveaux du Brésil, découverts, décrits, et dessinés d’après nature, vol 1. Imprimerie Typographique Veuve Monnom, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  • Romanoff S, Jiménez DM, Uaquí FS, Fleck DW (2004) Matsesën nampid chuibanaid: la vida tradicional de los Matsés. Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicación Práctica (CAAAP), Lima

    Google Scholar 

  • Rondon CMS (1916) Missão Rondon: apontamentos sobre os trabalhos realizados pela commissão de linhas telegraphicas estrategicas de Matto-Grosso ao Amazonas. Typ. do Jornal do Commercio, Rio de Janeiro

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultes RE (1974) Palms and religion in the northwest Amazon. Principes 18:3–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultes RE (1980) De plantis toxcariis e mundo novo tropicale commentationes XXIX: a suspected new Amazonian hallucinogen. Bot Mus Leaflets (Har) 28(3):271–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith NJH, Vásquez R, Wust WH (2007) Amazon river fruits: flavors for conservation. Amazon Conservation Association (ACA)/Missouri Botanical Garden, Lima

    Google Scholar 

  • Sosnowska J, Balslev H (2009) American palm ethnomedicine: a meta-analysis. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed 5:43–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spruce R (1853b) Journal of a voyage up the Amazon and Rio Negro. In: Hooker WJ (ed) Hooker’s journal of botany and Kew Garden miscellany, vol 5. Lovell Reeve, London, pp 187–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Spruce R (1854a) Extract of a letter relating to vegetable oils, etc.; from Richard Spruce, esq.; dated San Carlos del Rio Negro, Venezuela, 19th March, 1854. In: Hooker WJ (ed) Hooker’s journal of botany and Kew Garden miscellany, vol 6. Lovell Reeve, London, pp 333–337

    Google Scholar 

  • Spruce R (1855) Botanical objects communicated to the Kew Museum, from the Amazon or its tributaries in 1853. In: Hooker WJ (ed) Hooker’s journal of botany and Kew Garden miscellany, vol 7. Lovell Reeve, London, pp 273–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Spruce R (1908) Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes, vol 1. Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Tessmann G (1999) Los indígenas del Perú nororiental: investigaciones fundamentales para un estudio sistemático de la cultura. Ediciones Abya Yala, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Velasco J (1977) La historia natural del reino de Quito en la América meridional, vol 1. Edit. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Quito

    Google Scholar 

  • Vickers WT (1994) The health significance of wild plants for the Siona and Secoya. In: Etkin NL (ed) Eating on the wild side: the pharmalogic, ecologic, and social implications of using noncultures. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 143–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace AR (1853) Palm trees of the Amazon and their uses. John Van Voorst, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiffen T (1915) The north-west Amazons: notes of some months spent among cannibal tribes. Constable and Company, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Works MA (1990) Continuity and conversion of house gardens in western Amazonia. Yearbook Assoc Pac Coast Geogr 52:31–64

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Nigel Smith

Authors
  1. Nigel Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Smith, N. (2015). Oenocarpus bataua . In: Palms and People in the Amazon. Geobotany Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05509-1_50

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation