Walnut kernels are universally known to contain many antioxidants that offer health benefits and will lower cholesterol in the body, thus lowering heart damage from disease and cause a dramatic reduction of fatty coagulants in veins and arteries. The leaves have been used as a laxative since antiquity, as well as to induce vomiting, stop bleeding, stop diarrhea, as a cure to many skin diseases and herpes, and to kill human internal worms. Walnut hull extracts have been used to treat liver problems, to kill ringworms, and to help lose weight. Walnuts are highly beneficial in providing all of the Vitamin B series, Vitamin E, and many minerals that are beneficial to keeping a healthy body.

Walnut hulls have found many uses in a powdered state as a metal polish, as a thermal insulator in rocket nose cones and as a mysterious, secret ingredient in women’s cosmetics. Walnut tree extracts have been used for centuries to make ink and dyes. The Egyptians used walnut kernel oil to embalm mummies by replacing the blood with walnut oil.

Greek mythology records that Carya, (the Latin genus name for walnut), who fell in love with the Greek God, Dionysus, was transformed into a walnut tree at her death. The wooden walnut columns (and later, marble) at the Acropolis that stand above the city were transformed into her human image (catyatides) that today can be seen by tourists in Athens, Greece.

Luther Burbank in 1893 introduced fast growing walnut tree hybrids that only required 15 years of growth to reach maturity, rather than the usual 50-60 years of growth. One hybrid he named, “Paradox walnut tree,” Juglans x ‘Paradox’ by crossing the English walnut tree, ‘Juglans regia,’ with the California black walnut, ‘Juglans hindsii.’ This walnut tree is used as a grafting understock for commercial cultivars. “Royal walnut tree,” Juglans x ‘Royal,’ by crossing the American black walnut tree, ‘Juglans nigra,’ with the California black walnut, ‘Juglans hindsii.’ This walnut tree still today produces almost a ton of nuts per year.

Other minor species of walnuts include the “Heartnut walnut tree,” ‘Juglans ailantifolia,’ that is as hardy as the American black walnut, easily grown, very productive, especially after the trees grow older. It bears strings of nuts sometimes 30 or more in a single cluster that hangs down 1 foot in length. The kernels of these heartnut walnuts drop out into a container completely intact when the thin shells are cracked. Luther Burbank felt that this walnut was an intermediate variant of the Japanese walnut. The Manchurian walnut tree, ‘Juglans mandshurica,’ was introduced as a variant of the Japanese walnut during the Civil War of the United States. The flavor of these nuts is considered spicy and superior in taste to other walnuts, while being crunchier. These trees grow to 100 feet tall or more and are cold hardy from zones 5 to 10. This walnut tree produces a staple food crop in Korea (Manchuria). Many excellent food products are available using the nuts from this walnut tree.

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