Editing Oenocarpus bacaba (section)

== Fruit and uses ==

The mesocarp can be eaten after removing the skin and briefly heating the fruit in water.<sup>[[#cite_note-7|[7]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-3|[3]]]</sup> The usual processing route for bacaba wine is to soften fruit in hot or warm water for about an hour, then crush and strain the mass, serving the drink chilled with sugar and often cassava or tapioca flour; the same paste goes into ice cream, popsicles and a chilled beverage, and the flavor has been compared to avocado.<sup>[[#cite_note-3|[3]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-5|[5]]]</sup> Oil is obtained by pounding the softened fruit, warming the mass in water and skimming it off; bacaba oil is used in cooking and soap-making and is described as considerably oilier than açaí oil, with regional cosmetic use of the seed oil.<sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup><sup>[[#cite_note-3|[3]]]</sup> The palm heart is eaten fresh, but harvesting it, or the young leaves used for brooms, stops fruit production on that palm.<sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup>

Composition figures are lot-specific; each study below is cited with its basis. One fresh pulp lot from the Belém area analysed by AOAC methods in triplicate was lightly acidic (pH 5.27), about 84% water, with about 9.1 g/100 g lipids, 5.6 g/100 g dietary fibre and about 107 kcal/100 g, and its suspensions behaved as pseudoplastic fluids.<sup>[[#cite_note-8|[8]]]</sup> A freeze-dried market lot from Palmas, Tocantins, contained (dry basis) about 7.4 g/100 g protein, 33.1 g/100 g lipids, 4.3 g/100 g ash and 50.5 g/100 g total dietary fibre and was classified as high-fibre; published lipid values for other lots range from about 21 to 28 g/100 g, differences attributed to maturity and growing conditions.<sup id="cite_ref-10">[[#cite_note-10|[10]]]</sup> Peel, a processing by-product, from a Mato Grosso lot analysed on a dry basis held about 29 g/100 g lipids, 583 mg/100 g potassium, total phenolics of about 42 mg GAE/g and 37 mg/100 g anthocyanins, with an in-vitro DPPH antioxidant IC50 of about 1.07 mg/mL.<sup id="cite_ref-11">[[#cite_note-11|[11]]]</sup> Artisan-made pulp from Roraima had low total pectin, indicating it is not well suited to jams and jellies without added gelling agents; phenolic and anthocyanin contents declined over five days of refrigerated storage but remained relatively high.<sup id="cite_ref-12">[[#cite_note-12|[12]]]</sup>