Useful from Top to Bottom

● Called “the tree of life” by the natives of northeast Brazil, the carnauba palm is put to an amazing number of uses. On “palm plantations” the leaves are harvested and from them carnauba wax is extracted. This wax is used in the finest of floor waxes, leather preservatives, carbon paper, phonograph records, movie film and in many rubber goods and insulating materials.

However, while the world uses the wax, the natives make full use of the rest of the plant. Besides the obvious uses of the leaves for woven mats and thatched huts, the trunks serve in all types of construction, especially the durable jangadas, or sailing rafts. Hollowed out trunks are even used to conduct water.

Then there are the edible portions. The shoots are eaten as palm cabbage, while starch is wrested from the young stalks. The small round fruit serves to fatten pigs and there ‘is even a fermented beverage made from the sap! Truly the carnauba palm is an economical “factory” with products from top to bottom!