Persea Americana

Mill.

Avocado (E); Aguacate (S); Ashue (Cu); Bego (Ch) . Avocados are eaten with rice, in salads, and in soups. The avocado has vitamin and oil-rich fruits relished by man, all domestic, and most wild animals, including carnivores. It may be eaten right off the tree and contains more protein than any other fruit. Some Latins regard the fruit as aphrodisiac. Lactating Saliqui Choco are supposed to abstain from avocado. The seed has a sap used for marking clothing indelibly. Many medicinal virtues are attributed to the seeds. Powdered, they may be used with cheese or tallow to poison mice and other noxious animals. The oil is sometimes used for grooming the hair. In Los Santos, the roots and leaves, made into a decoction, are drunk as te de aguacate, to lower the blood pressure (!). Te de aguacate is drunk instead of water by Chepigana Negroes with liver ailments. Breakfast in Puerto Obaldia frequently consists of a tea of avocado leaves sweetened with cane juice.