In the Netherlands the fatty substance from the beans is sold as 'taquin butter', which used to be used as an insecticide against moths in linen cupboards. Natural Tonka Bean oil is extremly poisonous, although is is still commercially used to flavour some tobaccos.

A very large tropical tree with big elliptical leaves and violet flowers, bearing fruit that contain a single black seed or 'tonka bean', about the size of a butter bean. The beans, known as 'rumara' by the locals (South America), are collected and dried, then soaked in alcohol or rum for twelve to fifteen hours to make them swell. When they are removed from the bath they become dried and shrunken, covered with a whitish powder of crystallized coumarin (the poison). The 'curing' of the beans is partly a coventional 'sales promotion' techique rather than an indication of quality, since the frosted appearance has come to be expected of the product.

Gender:feminine

Planet: Venus

Element: Water

Tonka Bean