Thursday, January 1, 2009

Acai Fruit History

By Dr. Jerimiah Crossderd

For hundreds of years, the Brazilian rain forest has been thought to contain many of medicines within plants and herbs that could alleviate most ailments known today.

Recently, this legend has become factual. Buried deep within the Amazon rain forest lies a berry that has been an Amazonian treasure for hundreds of years. The Acai fruit provides an answer to the myths of old.

The Acai fruit (pronounced Ah-sigh-ee) has been cultivated by the indigenous people of the Amazon rain forest for centuries. It has proven to be a panacea for everything from the common cold to diabetes. New scientific discoveries even link this tiny berry to curing cancer.

The story of the discovery of the acai fruit is an amazing one indeed--There was a tribe that had been blessed for centuries but now faced the threat of famine. The situation was so dire that the leader of the tribe, a proud man by the name of Itaki, made a law that all children were to be sacrificed.

After discovering that his own daughter was pregnant, the tribal leader was saddened that this declaration would affected his own family. He then forced his daughter to sacrifice her new born.

The daughter became so depressed that she refused any food or drink and locked herself in the room. After several days and nights of no food, the daughter became delusional and began to hear her baby's cry. She ran out of the room and began to make her way to a palm tree where she thought she saw her child

The next morning, the tribe descended to this palm tree and discovered the dead body of the tribal chiefs daughter. As they looked up at the palm tree, they noticed clumps of blue berries, which later became known as acai berries.

This berry provided all of the nourishment need to save the tribe from famine and to this day has provided the descendants of the tribe an economic salvation that holds true today as the acai fruit is their primary export.

This tiny Acai fruit is still proven to be one of the largest economic exports for this tiny city in Brazil.

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