Oyster Nut: telfairia pedata, telfairia occidentalis

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Oyster Nut: telfairia pedata, telfairia occidentalis

By goodadmin | February 8, 2008

The oyster nut is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, not a nut tree, which has a tremendous genetic diversity of nearly 100 genera and over 750 species. It is a perennial large vine grown in West, Central and East Africa. It is drought tolerant and can grow at elevations up to 2,000 m. Oyster nuts are actually the seeds of two tropical African gourds borne on large vines: Telfairia pedata, Central and East Africa and T. occidentalis, West Africa. They requires 18 months to flowering, and are usually trellised up and over trees that often can bring them crashing to the ground under the weight of the huge seed containers, which can weigh 10kg or more.

The gourds themselves are inedible, but it produces very large, long, flat seeds, oyster nuts which are high in carbohydrates, minerals and contain up to 30% protein. They have a flavor comparable to that of the Brazil nut and superior to it in nutritional quality. Each gourd can contain 100-400 of the oyster-shaped nuts, which are eaten raw, boiled, or roasted.

The kernels are sometimes ground to a paste, then wrapped in a banana leaf, and cooked with fish. The nuts can also be fermented for several days and eaten as slurry. The kernels are also pressed for the oil used in cooking. The oil content can be over 60%, and the protein content about 27%. Despite their rich in oil oyster nuts do keep well.

When young the vines are frost intolerant. They are easily propagated from fresh seeds that germinate in a week from planting and grow vigorously. Male and female flowers are produced on separate plants and fruits are usually born in the seventh year. The seeds are about 4cm in diameter and 1cm thick. They are opened with a knife by slitting around the age.

oyster nut

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