Acai history of the fruit - Ola Acai is 100% Pure Acai

History of Acai - The Miracle Fruit

The Amazon Rainforest is home to more than half of the Earth's estimated 10 million species of plants and animals. It is the source of about 20% of the Earth's oxygen. It has also been called "Nature's medicine chest", as a majority of pharmaceuticals and drugs are derived or are active constituents of plants that have come from there. The fruits of the rainforest have been enjoyed by native Indians for centuries. Experts estimate that these indigenous people routinely utilize as many as 2,000 of the 3,000 known rainforest fruits. For over 2,000 years people of various countries have used the Acai fruit to remedy many ailments.

Found on rainforest palms, the Brazilian Acai (AH-sci-EE) berry is the supermodel of fruit. The Acai Palm tree is a genus of 25-30 species of palms native to tropical Central and South America, from Belize south to Brazil and Peru, growing mainly in floodplains and swamps. They are tall slender attractive palms growing to 15-30 m tall, with pinnate leaves up to 3 m long.

The Acai fruit is a very small, round, black-purple drupe, produced in branched panicles of 700-900 fruits. Its appearance is similar to that of a grape, but it has a smaller amount of pulp and a single large seed.

The Legend of Acai

The legend spans a few hundred years. There existed a populated village at the edges of the Pará river that was growing rapidly. Due to this increment in the population, the food began to become scarce and the leader of the tribe, call Itaki, did not have another alternative and decreed that the people could not have any more children and from that moment, any newborn child should be sacrificed.

At the time, the daughter of the leader, call Iaçá, was pregnant. Her father was both excited and abhorred, because his grandchild would be treated like every other.

During the pregnancy, Iaçá prayed to Tupá (God), that he would show her father a food that could save the tribe. Nothing happened.

The child was born. A precious girl as predicted, but soon after, she was sacrificed. Iaçá was devastated, completely destroyed. She cried day and night, did not eat any food and was enclosed in her hut for days.

One night, she heard the crying of her daughter in the forest. She ran, with the little energy that remained in her, directed by the sound, and there, she saw her daughter at the side of a slender palm tree. When she tried to embraced her, the image disappeared. On the following day, they found her dead, with a smile on her lips, embracing the palm tree and with open eyes, looking up, to the many bunches of dark purple fruits.

They ordered the descent of the fruits and the removal of the juice. They obtained a reddish wine, that soon became the diet for the tribe.

Itaki called the fruit Açaí (Iaçá inverted) in memory of her daughter. He raised the prohibition and the tribe began to prosper again. Nowadays that population is known as Belém, in the state of Pará, Brazil.