Edible nuts are used by mankind for food, edible oils, spices, condiments or beverages. They have been an important food source from prehistoric times and are among the most nutritionally concentrated of human foods, high in protein, oil, energy, minerals and vitamins. Nuts that are only rarely used as famine food have been excluded from this present study partly because of the paucity information available but mainly because they are not normally
considered edible. Nuts used solely for spices or condiments have also been largely excluded since they are used sparingly, to flavour food and not as a food; traditionally they are considered separately from edible nuts. Nuts that are largely used as commercial sources of edible oil are not discussed in any great detail since they are already adequately dealt with in the literature, e.g., Hartley (1988) regarding the oil palms Elaeis guienensis. However, their local uses are briefly mentioned in Appendix A. Melville (1947) has, perhaps not unexpectedly, noted a correlation in nutritive values betweenspecies within a genus or family. There are also similarities to be found between related
species in the harvesting, storage and processing techniques, etc. The arrangement of edible nut species in Appenndix A is, therefore, by families in the expectation that users can compare related species and possibly improve management techniques or deduce possible techniques where none are known.