The Amazon Acai Berry Story

Today the acai berry from the Amazon regions of South America has found its way into the diet of people all over the globe. There are tribes today whose people use the acai berry as part of their daily dietary intake, as much as forty-two percent of it in fact, and consider the acai fruit to be their most important plant variety. The peoples that found use for this fruit goes far back in time to ancient folklore of the native peoples of the Amazon. In their centuries-old storytelling, there remains a story dating back hundreds and hundreds of years.

It is the story of a native tribe that had grown so populated they did not have enough food to eat. In an attempt to resolve the problem, the chief made a decree to kill all newborn babies in his tribe. After this decree was made, the chief’s very own daughter bore a child. No exception was to be made, so the chief’s daughter lost her newborn to her father’s decree. The chief’s daughter went by the name Iaca. Iaca remained in her hut for several days, filled with the sorrow for her child. After several days had gone by, Iaca thought she had heard a baby crying outside. Iaca went outside in search of what she had thought to be her baby crying for her and wondered into the jungle. In the jungle she found a palm tree growing from the ground and it contained a bountiful harvest of berries. Iaca was so upset that not only had she not found her child, but she had also found a source of food for her tribe which had been the reason her child had been slain. Iaca laid there at the base of the palm tree there in jungle and died of a broken heart. Tribe members found Iaca the next day laying beneath the tree dead and noticed the berries hanging in the tree. The fruits eased the hunger of the tribe and reestablished the energy of the tribe and the tribe continued on to live well. The tribal chief lifted the decree to kill the tribe’s newborns and to name the new found fruit after his deceased daughter. The fruit that had renewed the tribe’s life and energy was named Acai, the backwards spelling of Iaca, in honor of the chief’s lovely daughter.

Today it is still called “ica-cai” by native peoples, which through translation means “fruit that cries”. The berry is and has been used as food and as a healer in these areas for hundreds of years. Recent developments in transportation have led to people around the globe enjoying the acai berry as food or as a substance that provides numerous health benefits. Research on this wondrous berry have only started to weigh in all the ways the acai berry can be beneficial for us either through its antioxidant content, its nutritional base or its effect on fighting the bad or helping the good in our bodies. Time will only reveal more.