Manketti Nut

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Published 2014

About

manketti nut or mugongo nut, borne by trees of the genus Ricinodendron, especially R. rautanenii, in tropical Africa. The nuts are about the size of hazelnuts, and the nutritious kernels may be eaten raw or roasted (when they resemble roasted cashew nuts). The fruit pulp may be eaten raw, when it is like dates, but less sweet; or be boiled when, as noted by Facciola (1990), it turns maroon in colour and tastes like apple sauce.

The manketti nut is remarkable for the fact that it is often collected from elephant dung. Elephants are good at picking the fruit and eat them greedily, but their digestive processes do not affect the very hard nuts. When these emerge after a week inside the elephant, their seeds are ready to germinate; people then collect, clean, and crack the nuts, and eat them.

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