ACAI: Tree of life.

Acai Fruit is a small, deep-purple berry that grows on the tall, slender Acai palm tree, which is a very common native of the Brazilian Rainforest. The Acai palm may reach one hundred feet in height and has adapted to survive in waterlogged soil in the lowland flood areas along the rivers of northern South America, where it forms large groves. The palm family encompasses over twelve hundred species and is one of the most useful plants for the inhabitants of the rainforest as a vital resource for food, beverages, oils, building materials, tools and weapons. The Acai has been used for thousands of years by the indigenous tribes of the area for its extraordinary nutritional and healing qualities, and Brazilians call it "Tree of Life." The edible fruit is small, round and blackish purple, resembling a grape, but smaller and darker. The berry contains a single, large seed with very little pulp and is surrounded by stringy fibrous sheaths and a thin, oily coating. Acai berries are harvested in the dry season and favored by birds and rodents that disburse the seeds in their droppings for propagation of the species. Acai Fruit is highly nutritional, serving as a traditional food for the native people living in the Amazon forest, and although consumed for centuries as an essential food in South America, it was only at the turn of the twenty-first century that it was introduced to the outside commercial world as a spectacular natural health supplement.

Outside the  Amazon, açaí is currently best known for the purple liquid produced from its fruit. Within Amazonian communities, however, nearly all of its parts are used in various ways. The leaves are twisted and knotted into a hoop to use in climbing the palm trunk when harvesting the fruit, or used as mulch. The seeds, once stripped of the mesocarp, serve as fodder for pigs and as fertilizer. The apical meristem is harvested as edible palm hearts. The trunks are used as flooring and fencing. The palm is also used in ornamental horticulture in urban areas. Some researchers note that Euterpe oleracea is important in stabilizing the bank of the floodplain areas in which they grow. Given the multiple uses of this palm by people in traditional communities, the increased national and international demand for acai juice has far-reaching effects on local cultural, economic, and environmental contexts.