Why is macadamia called "Queen of nuts"?

Have you ever wondered why Macadamia’s price is high and is called a beautiful name: "Queen of nuts"? The answer is not only due to the nutrient content in the macadamia nuts, but also the complexity of handling, harvesting and processing of this nut..

THE ORIGIN OF MACADAMIA

Macadamia is a large tree species native to coastal rainforests in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales in Australia. The main product of the macadamia tree is nut. Nuts are yellowish-white, accounting for nearly one-third of the grain weight, the most delicious of the nuts used to eat, and are called "The queen of the nuts." According to the analysis of Wenkham and Miller in 1965, the nutrients in the macadamia are as follows:

Fat  78,2%
Sugar compounds  10%
Protein 9,2%
Water content of 1,5 - 2,5 % (dried kernel required long-term preservation)
Kali 0,37%
Phosphorus  0,17%
Magnesium  0,12%

In addition, each kilogram of kernel contains calcium 360mg, Sulfur 66 mgr, easy iron 18 mgr, zinc 14 mgr, copper 3.3 mgr, and some vitamins such as vitamins pp 16 mgr, Vitamin B1 2.2 mgr, Vitamin B2 2.2 mgr; Later studies have also shown that caffeine also contains a very large amount of vitamin E: 6.4 to 18 g /kg of kernel.

Compared with peanut fat content of 44.8%, cashew nuts 47%, almonds 51%, peach nuts 63%, the fat content 78% better than in particular. Unsaturated fatty acid content in oily fish up to 84% was just behind oil (97%). This is the fat that the modern world attaches great importance due to reduce the risk of cholesterol buildup in the human body and suited to the need for solvents in cosmetics. The macadamia kernet is not only fat, with 9% protein 10% sugar but also sweet and fragrant aroma of dairy butter.

Beside kernel is the main product, shelled pod contains 14% taffin, 8-10% protein, after extraction of tan-nin with hot water, crusts are often crushed for animal feed. Nut shells are less valuable, at processing plants often use nut shells for fuel, or grind as organic material padded nursery seedlings, padded pots landscape.

ECOLOGICAL REQUIREMENTS

Macadamia is grown in alternate climate area: cool, drought-resistant and drought-tolerant, especially in tropical monsoon climate with high drought tolerance and tolerance to wet rain. Each tree has a lot of flowers, each long flower has from 100-300 small flowers, but the rate of fruit is only 0.1 - 0.3%. If climatic conditions are unfavorable, trees can be completely free of bearing fruit. Thus, in Vietnam over the past 15 years, macadamia trees are only suitable for the two cultivated areas: Tay Nguyen and Tay Bac where created good quality fruits with stable output.

CARE PROCESS

Macadamia plants require less intensive care, less serious pests, but farmers must pay attention to collect nuts in time to avoid losses due to rats, squirrels. Beside that, cutting young buds in winter and spring must be done thoroughly in time to hope that many flower and fruit can be bloom.

HARVESTING PROCESS

The main harvesting method is collect ripe fruit on the ground by machine or by hand. After ripening, most of the fruit is cracked, nuts can be separated in the garden.
Harvesting macadamia nuts has some main difficulties as follows:

- Must collect nuts daily to reduce the losses due to rats, squirrels.

- Weeds must be cleaned so that the fallen nuts are not missed.

- The harvest season coincides with the rice crop leading to labor shortages.

The more complicated problem after harvesting is drying macadamia. Fresh nuts with a water content up to 30% need to quickly dry in the shade until the water content is reduced to 5%. With a moisture content of 5% the seeds can be stored for several months. This is also the standard level of humidity for farm owners in Australia and the United States to apply to the national macadamia.

In the international market, Macadamia nuts have a moisture content of 1.5% for which can be stored for many years. Drying to this moisture usually requires a kiln similar to drying tobaco, the initial drying temperature is 32 degrees Celsius, after four days gradually climbing to 52 degrees Celsius, depending on the dryness of the nuts.

Thus, we have a brief look at the origin and process of caring, harvesting Macadamia nut. With high nutritional content, this nut is expected to become one of the natural products to welcome the trend of healthy living in the future.