The genus is named after the muse Euterpe of Greek mythology. Euterpe are tall, slender palms growing to 15 to 30 meters, with pinnate leaves up to 3 meters long. Many of the palms that were once in the genus Euterpe have been reclassified into the genus Prestoea (Riffle, 2003). The species Euterpe oleracea is usually called Acai Palm, after the Portuguese derivation of the Tupian word acai was fruit that cries or expels water.



Apart from the use of its berries as food, the acai palm has other commercial uses. Leaves may be made into hats, mats, baskets, brooms and roof thatch for homes, and trunk wood, resistant to pests, for building construction (Silva, 2005). Comprising 80% of the berry mass, seeds may be ground for livestock food or as a component of organic soil for plants. Planted seeds are used for new palm tree stock which, under the right growing conditions, requires months to form seedlings.

A comparative analysis reported that acai had intermediate antioxidant potency among a variety of frozen juice pulps tested. A powdered preparation of freeze-dried acai fruit pulp and skin was shown to contain anthocyanins (3.19 mg/g), including cyanidin 3-glucoside and cyanidin 3-rutinoside, yet the contribution of anthocyanins to overall antioxidant capacity of acai is only about 10%. The powdered preparation was also reported to contain twelve flavonoid-like compounds, including homoorientin, orientin, taxifolin deoxyhexose, isovitexin, scoparin, as well as proanthocyanidins (12.89 mg/g), and low levels of resveratrol (1.1 ug/g).

When three commercially available juice mixes containing unspecified percentages of acai juice were compared for in vitro antioxidant capacity against red wine, tea, six types of pure fruit juice, and pomegranate juice with added antioxidants (provided by Pom Wonderful, the sponsor of the study), the average antioxidant capacity was ranked lower than that of the antioxidant enhanced pomegranate juice, Concord grape juice, blueberry juice, and red wine. The average was roughly equivalent to that of black cherry or cranberry juice, and was higher than that of orange juice, apple juice, and tea.

The fruit, a small, round, black-purple drupe about 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter, similar in appearance and size to a grape but with less pulp, is produced in branched panicles of 700 to 900 fruits. Two crops of fruit are produced each year. The fruit has a single large seed about 0.25 to 0.40 inches (7 to 10 mm) in diameter. The exocarp of the ripe fruits is a deep purple color, or green, depending on the kind of acai and its maturity. The mesocarp is pulpy and thin, with a consistent thickness of 1 mm or less. It surrounds the voluminous and hard endocarp which contains a seed with a diminutive embryo and abundant endosperm.

Fatty acids are aliphatic monocarboxylic acids, derived from, or contained in esterified form in an animal or vegetable fat, oil or wax. Natural fatty acids commonly have a chain of 4 to 28 carbons (usually unbranched and even numbered), which may be saturated or unsaturated. By extension, the term is sometimes used to embrace all acyclic aliphatic carboxylic acids.

This would include acetic acid, which is not usually considered a fatty acid because it is so short that the triglyceride triacetin made from it is substantially miscible with water and is thus not a lipid. Freeze-dried acai powder was shown to have mild inhibitory effects on cyclooxygenase enzymes COX-1 and COX-2, and chemically-extracted polyphenolic-rich fractions from acai were reported to reduce the proliferation of HL-60 (experimental leukemia) cells in vitro. In vitro anti-proliferative effects were also observed with extracts from acai pulp oil.