Candlenut, Kemiri, and the many lives of a single tree
Plants that do more than one thing are always interesting and there
are many such plants. Candlenut is a particularly good example. We seek
these out and as a result, our ‘food forest’ is a collection of single and multi-purpose plants. It is a web of relationships. A tree might provide food, shade, habitat, medicine, timber, mulch, fertility or protection for something small living in it or something growing beneath it. The more we understand those relationships, the more interesting a farm becomes.
Candlenut, known locally as kemiri, and botanically as Aleurites moluccana, is a familiar tree across Indonesia and much of the tropical Pacific. But its English name gives away something remarkable.
Candlenut, known locally as kemiri, and botanically as Aleurites moluccana, is a familiar tree across Indonesia and much of the tropical Pacific. But its English name gives away something remarkable.
It has been used to make light.
A candle growing on a tree
Candlenut seeds contain a remarkable amount of oil. Long before petroleum and modern energy systems, people discovered that this oil could be burned. Traditionally seeds have been threaded on to sticks to make candles. Each nut provides a small amount of light before the next one catches fire. The tree has always been a source of illumination. That gives candlenut a wonderfully strange quality. It looks like an ordinary tropical tree, growing quietly among other trees, but hidden inside its fruit is concentrated chemical energy. Sunlight has been captured by the tree, converted into plant matter and stored in the seed as oil.
But the candle is only the beginning
Candlenut has also been used for much more than illumination. The oil can be used in cooking after appropriate preparation, and has also been used traditionally in soaps, cosmetics, varnishes, wood treatments and other products. The timber has uses too. And then there is what remains after the oil is extracted. The press cake contains nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, and can be returned to the soil as an organic fertilising material. So the useful part of the tree doesn't necessarily end when the valuable oil has been removed.
Seed → oil → product → press cake → soil → tree.
A tree with a medicinal history
Candlenut has yet another layer to its story: medicine.
Across different cultures, various parts of Aleurites moluccana have been used traditionally for a surprisingly wide range of ailments. In Indonesia, for example, the bark has been recorded in traditional treatment for diarrhoea. Elsewhere, preparations from the plant have been used for pain, fever, inflammation, asthma, headaches, stomach complaints, skin sores and wounds.
Modern research has begun to investigate some of these traditional uses. Laboratory and animal studies have reported anti-inflammatory, pain-reducing and antimicrobial activity from certain plant extracts, while other research has investigated potential wound-healing effects. The traditional medicinal history tells us something important. People have been observing plants for a very long time. They noticed what happened when particular leaves, bark, oils or seeds were used. That accumulated knowledge has become part of local cultures and landscapes.
The relationship between observation, experience and place is part of what makes plants so interesting. And, of course, raw candlenuts are not something to experiment with casually. The seeds can cause significant toxicity if eaten improperly. Traditional culinary use involves appropriate preparation.
A tree that belongs in a forest
Perhaps the most interesting thing about candlenut isn't any single product. It is the possibility of stacking functions. Candlenut can grow as part of a mixed agroforestry system rather than existing as a field of identical trees. In Indonesia, it has traditionally been grown alongside other crops, including coffee. This changes the way we can think about farming.
On a permaculture/traditional farm the same space can produce different things at different heights, seasons and timescales. A tall tree can provide structure and shade. Another plant can occupy the space beneath it. A vine can climb. Ground-covers can protect the soil. Animals can move through the system. Organic material returns to the ground. The soil feeds the plants. The plants feed people. And the cycle continues.
An old relationship with people
Candlenut also has a surprisingly deep human history. Evidence suggests that people in eastern Indonesia were using candlenut thousands of years ago in Tropical and Subtropical Asia, Australasia, and the Western Pacific. Austronesian peoples later carried the tree across the Pacific, where it became an important part of traditional life in places such as Hawaiʻi and some of the pacific islands (around a thousand years ago). This makes candlenut more than an agricultural commodity. It is part of a long story about people learning how to work with plants and landscapes. The knowledge is often much older than the agricultural systems we now think of as conventional.
At 5eyes, this is one of the things we find fascinating about traditional knowledge. It is a practical knowledge with functional uses. It isn't necessarily about going backwards. Sometimes it contains ideas that modern agriculture has spent a lot of effort trying to rediscover.
One tree, many functions
We often talk about sustainability as though it means finding a better product or a cleaner technology. But sometimes the better technology is already growing in the landscape. Candlenut doesn't solve every agricultural problem. It isn't a miracle tree, and it needs to be grown and used appropriately. What it demonstrates is something simpler and perhaps more important:
A productive landscape can be designed around multiple relationships rather than a single harvest.
| Food | Habitat |
| Fuel | Medicine |
| Materials | Fertility |
| Shade | And light |
Experimenting with the properties of a tree is a work in progress. We are trying to understand what happens when we stop asking: “What can we get from this piece of land?” and start asking: “What relationships can we create here?”
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5eyes Nature-Lab is on the foothills of Mount Salak. We are experimenting with food forests, regenerative farming, traditional knowledge and practical ways of living more closely with the land. We are interested in old knowledge, new ideas and what happens when the two meet in a real landscape.
Nature in Us. Nature Around Us.
Learn. Experience. Belong.
Contact 5eyes for unique experiences in nature through accommodation, workshops, field-trips and good food.
WA +62 813 8441 6677
