As you may know, both cashew apples and cashew nuts have high nutritional and economic value. Beside, the cashew shell also offers remarkable economic benefits. Join Good Farmers in today’s Green News as we explore these surprising values.
The cashew shell contains an inedible phenolic oil known as cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), which has many industrial uses. CNSL is useful in insecticidal, fungicidal, anti-termite, and medicinal applications. It is also used as an additive in many plastic formulations, as well as in the manufacture of resins employed in the fields of friction materials, automobiles, surface coatings, adhesives, laminates, rubber compounding, and more.
A study also found that cashew shells, after extracting CNSL, were superior to several liquid fuels, such as ethanol and methanol, as well as firewood, in terms of energy content.
