Baba's Gardentag:www.babasgarden.net,2007://12006-10-09T18:37:49ZWe have to take care of each and every flower in this universe.Movable Type 3.34Palm - Euterpe edulistag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.4002006-10-09T18:30:52Z2006-10-09T18:37:49Z An emergent rainforest palm, it is found cross large areas of south-eastern Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Paraguay....
An emergent rainforest palm, it is found cross large areas of south-eastern Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Paraguay. ]]>
Euterpe edulis
Common Names:
Jucara Palm,
Heart-of-Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
An emergent rainforest palm, it is found cross large areas of south-eastern Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Paraguay.
Description:
A tall, slim, solitary palm to 8m high, with an attractive crown of drooping leaves, and a coloured crownshaft.
General:
The palm heart is very commonly eaten, typically steamed. Because this is a highly prized dish, (often called "Millioniares salad" due to its price), and it is a single stemmed plant, (and not suckering like its brother E. oleracea , so collection of the palm heart is always fatal), the populations of the plant are being put under pressure in some areas.
Culture:
Warm sheltered, and moist, but well drained. Likes filtered sun when young, but can take full sun as it matures.
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Palm - Euterpe - from Braziltag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3992006-10-09T18:27:24Z2006-10-09T18:36:17Z There are literally hundreds of species of palm trees that oftentimes dominate the vegetation of regularly flooded rainforest lands in the Amazon. Up to seven thousand palm trees per acre have been recorded in some areas of the rainforest....
There are literally hundreds of species of palm trees that oftentimes dominate the vegetation of regularly flooded rainforest lands in the Amazon. Up to seven thousand palm trees per acre have been recorded in some areas of the rainforest. The Palm family, with over 1200 species split into 32 generic groups, is one of the most useful families of plants and widely used by rainforest inhabitants. Palm trees have long provided a range of products including food, beverages, cooking oil, clothing, construction materials, tools, weapons and household wares. ]]>
Family: Arecaceae
Genus: Euterpe
Species: oleracea
Synonyms: Euterpe badiocarpa
Common Names: Acai, açaí, acaí, acaizeiro, acaí-do-Pará, asai, ashaí, assaí, cabbage palm, cansin, chonta, guasai, hasabis, hausai, huai, jicara, juçara, manac, manaka, manicole, morroke, naidí, palisade pine, palmito, palmiteiro, panan, pina, pinau, pinot, piriá, prasara, saké, uassi, ungurahua, wasei, wapoe, yisara, yuyu chonta
Parts Used: fruit, root
There are literally hundreds of species of palm trees that oftentimes dominate the vegetation of regularly flooded rainforest lands in the Amazon. Up to seven thousand palm trees per acre have been recorded in some areas of the rainforest. The Palm family, with over 1200 species split into 32 generic groups, is one of the most useful families of plants and widely used by rainforest inhabitants. Palm trees have long provided a range of products including food, beverages, cooking oil, clothing, construction materials, tools, weapons and household wares.
Acai is a very common, tall, slender palm tree in this important palm family which grows 15 to 25 m in height. The average mature wild tree has 4-8 well-developed stems (10-15 cm in diameter) from a single seed and root system; however, a single seed can grow a plant providing up to 25 shoots growing individually. It has pinnate leaves that start from a prominent crownshaft that is reddish color. It has adapted to live in periodically waterlogged and flooded soils by developing special root structures called pneumatophores. It produces both female and male flowers which are quite small and are brown to purple in color.
Acai also produces an edible fruit which grows in bunches. The fruit is round, 1-2 cm in diameter, with a single large seed inside surrounded by stringy fibrous sheaths and a thin oily coating. It begins as a green color and ripens to a dark purple. Each tree stem usually produces four to eight bunches of fruit throughout the year but ripe fruits are the heaviest in the dry season (July to December) Each bunch can weigh up to 6 kg and one stem/trunk normally yields, on average, 24 kgs of fruit annually. In its natural habitat under the shady rainforest canopy, the acai tree grows slowly in low light, often taking 4-5 years before producing fruit. The fruit is favored by birds and rodents and the seeds are disbursed through the forest in their droppings. Found throughout the Amazon and especially prevalent in the Brazilian state of Pará, acai is extremely common throughout the lowland flood areas along the rivers of northern South America where it forms large groves.
Acai and other Euterpe palm trees are the subject of commercial exploitation in South America. Palm hearts, eaten worldwide as a vegetable, are obtained by cutting the palm and removing the crownshaft, in which the heart is found. Palm hearts are the tender, whitish immature leaves of the palm frond just above the growing point on each stem. Although is has almost no nutritious value, palm hearts have been a staple food enjoyed by the local populations for generations and have also become a economic resource and export product for many rainforest countries. France, followed by the U.S. are the largest importers of palm hearts. There are over 120 registered palm heart processors operating in the Amazon, with a multitude of smaller unregistered family operations selling their harvests to the larger facilities with onsite canning operations. Originally, much of the commercial palm heart production in South America beginning in the 1960's came from a different palm tree, Euterpe edulis, which only produces a single trunk. (However, one large tree can yield up to 50 pounds of palm hearts.) Because the tree must be felled to extract the palm heart, palm heart exploitation without any adequate management severely decimated the wild populations of this species at an alarming rate.
After many native E. edulis palm groves disappeared, harvesters began using the acai palm as a more sustainable alternative since it produces many stems/trunks. Unlike it's cousin, when one of acai's stems is cut, more stems will grow back on the same root system and the cutting of some of the stems encourages fruiting on the remaining stems. Acai palm (E. oleracea) is now the world's main source of palm hearts. While Acai does offer a more sustainable alternative, it does not ensure that the correct exploitative harvesting methods will be used to guarantee the plant's survival. Huge stands of acai palm are often over-exploited and sometimes entire groves are clear-felled for palm heart exploitation. Currently, there is a shortage of raw materials in many locations in the Amazon River estuary due to over-harvesting and a lack of sustainable management of native stands; palm heart processing plants in the area generally operate only 2-3 days per week.
Many botanists disagree that palm heart harvesting of any species is sustainable at all since ninety-five percent of the tree is wasted in the process. What may well guarantee it's survival is the new, rapidly growing, and profitable export market for the acai fruit, which might surpass the profits gleaned from harvesting the palm heart in the near future.
TRIBAL AND HERBAL MEDICINE USES
In the Amazon, the acai palm heart is widely consumed as a vegetable, the fruit is prepared into a popular fruit drink and used as a natural ink or dye, and the wood is used in house construction (palm thatched roofs). Ethnobotanists have recorded no less than 22 different uses for all parts of the tree. In the Brazilian Amazon, the Indian tribes of the forest use all parts of the tree. They fell the tree and eat the palm heart, turn the fruit into a juice drink, and use the mature palm fronds for thatch for their house roofs. They then urinate on the rest of the felled tree to attract a species Rhynchophorus palm beetle to lay it's eggs inside the felled tree. Several weeks later, they return to harvest 3-4 pounds of beetle grub larvae which are an important source of protein (62%) and fat (4.5%) in their diet. The fruit juice is also very popular throughout the local communities and indigenous tribes of the Amazon; resulting in acai trees commonly planted in gardens, around villages, and in back yards. The fruit and palm hearts are also taken into river cities and towns where they are sold as cash crops by river- and forest-dwelling families.
In Brazilian herbal medicine, the oil of the fruit is used to treat diarrhea; an infusion of the root is used for jaundice and to build the blood; an infusion of the grated fruit rind is used as a topical wash for skin ulcers; and, the fruit seeds are crushed and prepared in an infusion for fevers. In the Peruvian Amazon, an infusion of the toasted crushed seeds is used for fever, and a decoction of the root is used for malaria, diabetes, hepatitis and jaundice, hair loss, hemorrhages, liver and kidney diseases, menstrual pain, and muscle pain. In Colombia, where the trees grow along the Pacific coast line, it is called naidí and the fruit is turned into a common and popular drink.
By far, the main use of acai by the local inhabitants of the Amazon is for the preparation of a thick, dark purple juice obtained by macerating the ripe fruits. In some areas, individual consumption of up to 2 liters daily has been recorded. It is often referred to as "poor-man's juice." It is so popular, there is usually a small special establishment called an acailandia in most Amazon river towns and villages that prepare the acai juice and sell it in small plastic bags. Although a basic part of the diet of the poor, acai liquid has become popular throughout all socioeconomic levels. It has a metallic nutty flavor with a creamy texture and oily appearance. To prepare the liquid the ripe fruits are soaked in water to soften the thin outer shell. The fruits are then squeezed and the large seeds strained out to produce a dense purple liquid with a distinctive flavor. In the Amazon, the liquid is often combined with a starchy root vegetable called manioc (which has been dried and ground into a flour) and is eaten as a purple porridge. It is mixed with sugar or sugar cane to sweeten and drunk as a beverage, as well as used to flavor ice cream, liquor and other desserts.
Acai is a staple food for many economically disadvantaged inhabitants of the lower Amazon region area. The acai-manioc porridge is quite poor in nutrition but is very filling with a large amount of starch and sugar. In Belém, a major port and gateway into the Brazilian Amazon, an enormous acai fruit market called Feira do Acai houses 70 to 120 vendors selling over 200,000 kg of acai fruit daily during the dry season. The fruit juice is widely consumed as a staple, however, no medicinal properties have been associated with it. Prepared acai fruit drinks sell for about $2 per liter on the streets of Belém, making it highly affordable for everyone.
PLANT CHEMICALS
The fruit liquid, called simply acai or vinho de acai (although it's not alcoholic or fermented) is not really that nutritious in comparison to many other fruit juices. The nutrient content analyzed is 1-4% protein, 7-11% fats, 25% sugar, 0.05% calcium, 0.033% phosphorous, and 0.0009% iron. It also has some sulphur, traces of vitamin B1 and some vitamin A and E. It also delivers 88 to 265 calories per 100 grams, depending on the preparation method.
The dark purple color of the fruit is due to the polyphenolic compounds present. One of the main plant chemicals getting a lot of attention in acai, is a compound called anthocyanin. Anthocyanins are a group of flavonoids widely distributed in plants and lending a red to purple color to fruits like grapes, blackberries, and raspberries. As a well known antioxidant, anthocyanin-rich foods and fruits have been marketed as cancer preventative and anti-aging products. Anthocyanins have also been studied as novel sources of natural food colorings and dyes. The anthocyanin in acai however is highly unstable and degrades easily in the presence of heat, humidity, as well as in the presence of enzyme actions of other chemicals in the fruit. This makes acai fruit highly perishable; it readily changes in color, taste, and anthocyanin content with even short term (12 hours) refrigerated storage.
In addition to the standard vitamins and minerals found in most fruits, the main plant chemicals in acai fruit include epicatechin, p-hydroxy-benzoic acid, gallic acid, (+)-catechin, protocatechuic acid, ellagic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid, cyanidin, and pelaronidin 3-glucoside.
BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES AND CLINICAL RESEARCH
Acai has not been the subject any studies to determine biological activity since it isn't traditionally used for any type of medical condition. Most of the published research over the last few years have concerned pasteurization and extraction methods being developed in an effort to provide for longer storage of a highly perishable fruit. One single in vitro test was reported in which they extracted the well known antioxidant, phenols and anthocyanin chemicals from the fruit and demonstrated these chemicals had the ability to retard cancer cell growth in a test tube. As all the chemicals extracted from acai for this study were well known chemicals (no novel chemicals found yet in acai) found in other common fruits and plants and which had similar in vitro cancer cell studies performed, this was not anything profound or new.
CURRENT PRACTICAL USES
In the Brazilian Amazon more research and development is being done in the states of Pará and Amapá where various non-governmental organizations and university-based projects are promoting the sustained yield management of secondary flooded forests with a predominance of acai palms. With a continuing profitable market for the fruit and palm heart, it remains to be seen if natural rainforest lands are clear-cut for the profits to be had in the mass plantation-type cultivation of acai. One proposed project in Brazil calls for the planting of 5 billion acai trees in the next 10 years. Therefore, it also remains to be seen whether acai demand can strike a balance between rainforest conservation and the development of economic opportunities.
Much of the new acai fruit demand has resulted from several new product launches in the U.S. It seems the U.S. is in an "acai craze" today as a result of a some high dollar marketing programs touting it as the new, mysterious, power fruit of the Amazon... along with a host of health benefits - from weight loss, to increased energy and lower cholesterol. This type of marketing strategy isn't new however. It is a direct result of other "exotic" fruit products like noni and mangosteen netting billions in U.S. sales through network marking companies and direct retail sales playing on the exotic flair of some common tropical fruit but that isn't well known in the U.S. Since noni's profitable appearance in the U.S. market several years ago, many enterprising companies have been searching for the next and newest (highly profitable) noni-replacement from an "exotic" tropical fruit.
Ironically, Brazil's "poor man's juice" seems to have temporarily filled the bill as the new high-dollar "rich man's" health drink in the U.S. Brazilian heads are shaking at this recent American acai craze (as well as the high prices!) but they are certainly trying to increase production of acai fruit so they can capitalize off it as well. Various acai products are now widely available (and heavily marketed) in the U.S. natural products market - from liquid fruit drinks and freeze-dried or powdered juice extracts in capsules and tablets, to ingredients in natural energy bars and snacks. As with any product with a high-dollar marketing campaign behind it promising all the usual "loose weight, stay young, prevent disease and have more energy" impluse desires of most Americans... consumers still need to question the claims, do their own research, and try to choose a product with a money-back guarantee in the event that the product doesn't live up to it's far-reaching claims.
Acai is an interesting fruit and highly popular as a low-cost beverage where it grows, but it has never been marketed or sold in Brazil or in the Amazon for any health benefits whatsoever. (And remember, in one Amazon city alone, over 400,000 pounds of acai fruit is sold daily!) It makes one wonder... could an enterprising American launch an "exotic" cranberry juice drink to Amazonians who'd never heard of or seen a cranberry and get them to pay $40 a quart for it? Who knows... at least cranberries have some medicinal uses for urinary tract health!
ACAI FRUIT PLANT SUMMARY
Main Actions (in order):
antioxidant, astringent, nutritious
Main Uses:
as a beverage
Properties/Actions Documented by Research:
antioxidant
Other Properties/Actions Documented by Traditional Use:
astringent
Cautions: none
Traditional Preparation: In South America, acai fruit juice is freely consumed as a beverage. The ripe berries are soaked in water to render the juice. Only the roots of this Amazon palm tree are used medicinally. The roots are generally prepared as a decoction and 1-2 cups daily are taken.
Contraindications: None
Drug Interactions: None
Datetag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3982006-10-09T18:16:20Z2006-10-09T18:24:03Z Most of the dozen or more species of the genus Phoenix (family Palmae) are grown as ornamental palms indoors or out. Only the common date, P. dactylifera L., is cultivated for its fruit. Often called the edible date, it...
Most of the dozen or more species of the genus Phoenix (family Palmae) are grown as ornamental palms indoors or out. Only the common date, P. dactylifera L., is cultivated for its fruit. Often called the edible date, it has few alternate names except in regional dialects. To the French, it is dattier; in German, it is dattel; in Italian, datteri; or dattero; in Spanish, datil; and, in Dutch, dadel. The Portuguese word is tamara.]]>
Description
The date is an erect palm to 100 or 120 ft (30.5-36.5 m), the trunk clothed from the ground up with upward-pointing, overlapping, persistent, woody leaf bases. After the first 6 to 16 years, numerous suckers will arise around its base. The feather-like leaves, up to 20 ft (6 m) long, are composed of a spiny petiole, a stout midrib, and slender, gray-green or bluish-green pinnae 8 to 16 in (20-40 cm) long, and folded in half lengthwise. Each leaf emerges from a sheath that splits into a network of fibers remaining at the leaf base. Small fragrant flowers (the female whitish, the male waxy and cream colored), are borne on a branched spadix divided into 25 to 150 strands 12 to 30 in (30-75 cm) long on female plants, only 6 to 9 in (15-22.5 cm) long on male plants. One large inflorescence may embrace 6,000 to 10,000 flowers. Some date palms have strands bearing both male and female flowers; others may have perfect flowers. As the fruits develop, the stalk holding the cluster may elongate 6 ft (1.8 m) while it bends over because of the weight. The fruit is oblong, 1 to 3 in (2.5-7.5 cm) long, dark-brown, reddish, or yellowish-brown when ripe with thin or thickish skin, thick, sweet flesh (astringent until fully ripe) and a single, cylindrical, slender, very hard stone grooved down one side.
Origin and Distribution
The date palm is believed to have originated in the lands around the Persian Gulf and in ancient times was especially abundant between the Nile and Euphrates rivers. Alphonse de Candolle claimed that it ranged in prehistoric times from Senegal to the basin of the Indus River in northern India, especially between latitudes 15 and 30. There is archeological evidence of cultivation in eastern Arabia in 4,000 B.C. It was much revered and regarded as a symbol of fertility, and depicted in bas relief and on coins. Literature devoted to its history and romance is voluminous. Nomads planted the date at oases in the deserts and Arabs introduced it into Spain. It has long been grown on the French Riviera, in southern Italy, Sicily and Greece, though the fruit does not reach perfection in these areas. Possibly it fares better in the Cape Verde Islands, for a program of date improvement was launched there in the late 1950's. Iraq has always led the world in date production. Presently, there are 22 million date palms in that country producing nearly 600,000 tons of dates annually. The Basra area is renowned for its cultivars of outstanding quality. The date has been traditionally a staple food in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, the Sudan, Arabia and Iran. Blatter quotes the writer, Vogel, as stating: "When Abdel-Gelil besieged Suckna in 1824, he cut down no fewer than 43,000 trees, to compel the town to surrender; nevertheless, there are still at least 70,000 left."
In 1980, production in Saudi Arabia was brought to nearly a half-million tons from 11 million palms because of government subsidies, improved technology, and a royal decree that dates be included in meals in govern ment and civic institutions and that hygienically-packed dates be regularly available in the markets. Farmers receive financial rewards for each offshoot of a high-quality date planted at a prescribed spacing. The Ministry of Agriculture has established training courses throughout the country to teach modern agricultural methods, including mechanization of all possible operations in date culture, and recognition and special roles of the many local cultivars. In West Africa, near the Sahara, only dry, sugary types can be grown.
Bonavia introduced seeds of 26 kinds of dates from the Near East into northern India and Pakistan in 1869; and, in 1909, D. Milne, the Economic Botanist for the Punjab, introduced offshoots and established the date as a cultivated crop in Pakistan. The fruits ripen well in northwestern India and at the Fruit Research Center in Saharanpur. In southern India, the climate is unfavorable for date production. A few trees around Bohol in the Philippines are said to bear an abundance of fruits of good quality. The date palm has been introduced into Australia, and into northeastern Argentina and Brazil where it may prosper in dry zones. Some dates are supplying fruits for the market on the small island of Margarita off the coast from northern Venezuela. Seed-propagated dates are found in many tropical and sub-tropical regions where they are valued as ornamentals but where the climate is unsuitable for fruit production.
In November 1899, 75 plants were sent from Algiers to Jamaica. They were kept in a nursery until February 1901 and then 69 were planted at Hope Gardens. The female palms ultimately bore large bunches of fruits but they were ready to mature in October during the rainy season and, accordingly, the fruits rotted and fell. Only occasionally have date palms borne normal fruits in the Bahamas and South Florida.
Spanish explorers introduced the date into Mexico, around Sonora and Sinaloa, and Baja California. The palms were only seedlings. Still, the fruits had great appeal and were being exported from Baja California in 1837. The first date palms in California were seedlings planted by Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries in 1769. Potted offshoots from Egypt reached California in 1890 and numerous other introductions have been made into that state and into the drier parts of southern Arizona around Tempe and Phoenix. In 1912, Paul and Wilson Popenoe purchased a total of 16,000 offshoots of selected cultivars in Algeria, eastern Arabia and Iraq and transported them to California for distribution by their father, F.O. Popenoe who was a leader in encouraging date culture in California. It became a profitable crop, especially in the Coachella Valley. There are now about a quarter of a million bearing trees in California and Arizona.
Varieties
It would be impractical to deal in depth with date cultivars here. Paul Popenoe listed 1,500 and provided descriptions of the fruit and palm, as well as the history and significance, of the most important, country by country, in 90 pages of his book, The Date Palm, written in 1924 but published in 1973 and readily available. In Iraq, there are presently 450 female cultivars, the most important of which are: 'Zahdi' (43% of the crop; low in price); 'Sayer' 23% of the crop and high-priced); 'Halawi' (13% of the crop and high-priced); 'Khadrawi (6% of the crop and high-priced); also 'Khastawi, 'Brem', and 'Chipchap'. Sawaya and colleagues (1983) have reported on the sugars, tannins and vitamins in 55 major date cultivars of Saudi Arabia.
The following, with brief comments, are the dates most commonly grown:
'Barhi'— introduced into California in 1913 from Basra, Iraq; nearly cylindrical, light amber to dark brown when ripe; soft, with thick flesh and rich flavor; of superb quality. For shipment needs refrigeration as soon as picked, then curing and special packing.
'Dayri' (the "Monastery Date")—introduced into California from convent grounds in Dayri, Iraq, in 1913; long, slender, nearly black, soft. Palm requires special care. Not grown extensively in California.
'Deglet Noor'
'Halawi'
'Zahdi'
'Deglet Noor'—a leading date in Algeria and Tunisia; and in the latter country it is grown in inland oases and is the chief export cultivar. It was introduced into California in 1900 and now constitutes 75% of the California crop. It is semi-dry, not very sweet; keeps well; is hydrated before shipping. Much used for cooking. The palm is high yielding but not very tolerant of rain and atmospheric humidity.
'Halawy' ('Halawi')—introduced into California from Iraq; soft, extremely sweet, small to medium; may shrivel during ripening unless the palm is well-watered. It is especially tolerant of humidity.
'Hayany' ('Hayani')—the cultivar most extensively planted in Egypt; but not exported. Introduced into California in 1901, and is sold fresh; is not easy to cure. The fruit is dark-red to nearly black; soft. The palm is one of the most cold-tolerant.
'Khadrawy' ('Khadrawi')—important in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and is grown to some extent in California and Arizona. It is the cultivar most favored by Arabs but too dark in color to be popular on the American market, though it is a soft date of the highest quality. It is early-ripening; does not keep too well. This cultivar is the smallest edible date palm grown in the United States and it is fairly tolerant of rain and humidity.
'Khastawi' ('Khustawi'; 'Kustawy')—the leading soft date in Iraq; sirupy, small in size; prized for dessert; keeps well. The palm is large and vigorous and produces its offshoots high on the trunk in California. The fruit is resistant to humidity.
'Maktoom'—introduced into California from Iraq in 1902; large, red-brown; thick-skinned, soft, mealy, medium sweet; resistant to humidity.
'Medjool'—formerly exported from Morocco; 11 off-shoots imported into California from Bou Denib oases in French Morocco in 1927; is now marketed as a deluxe date in California; is large, soft, and luscious but ships well.
'Saidy' ('Saidi')—highly prized in Libya; soft, very sweet; palm is a heavy bearer; needs a very hot climate.
'Sayer' ('Sayir')—the most widely grown cultivar in the Old World and much exported to Europe and the Orient; dark orange-brown, of medium size, soft, sirupy, and sometimes some of the sirup is drained out and sold separately; not of high quality but the palm is one of the most tolerant of salt and other adverse factors.
'Thoory'('Thuri')—popular in Algeria; does well in California. Fruit is dry; when cured is brown-red with bluish bloom with very wrinkled skin and the flesh is sometimes hard and brittle but the flavor is good, sweet and nutty. Keeps well; often carried on journeys. The palm is stout with short, stiff leaves; bears heavily, and clusters are very large; somewhat tolerant of humidity.
'Zahdi'('Zahidi')—the oldest-known cultivar, consumed in great quantity in the Middle East; introduced into California about 1900. Of medium size, cylindrical, light golden-brown; semi-dry but harvested and sold in 3 stages: soft, medium-hard, and hard: very sugary; keeps well for months; much used for culinary purposes. The palm is stout, fast growing, heavy bearing; drought resistant; has little tolerance of high humidity.
Among the less well-known cultivars in California are:
'Amir Hajj'—introduced from Mandali Oasis in Iraq in 1929. The fruit is soft, with thin skin and thick flesh; of superior quality but little grown in the United States.
'Iteema'—offshoots from Algeria were introduced into California in 1900. The fruit is large, oblong, light amber, soft, very sweet. Much grown in Algeria but not rain resistant and little grown in California.
'Migraf' ('Mejraf)—a very popular cultivar in Southern Yemen. Fruit is light golden-amber, large; of good quality.
In inland oases of Tunisia, in addition to the 'Deglet Noor', there is 'Ftimi' ('Alligue') which is equally subject to humidity, less productive and less disease-resistant.
'Manakbir' has a large fruit and ripens earlier but has the disadvantage that the palm produces few offshoots and its multiplication is limited.
In coastal oases, the main cultivars are 'Kenta', Agnioua', 'Bouhatam' and 'Lemsi' which come into season early and ripen before the fall rains. They require less heat than other cultivars. The fruits are more or less dry and the flesh firm.
In all date-growing areas, some confusion is caused if a seed from harvested fruits falls at the base of a select cultivar and the seedling springs up unnoticed among the offshoots. Such seedlings should be watched for and discarded lest they be mistakenly transplanted with the offshoots and later bear fruits of inferior quality.
Pollination
Date pollen is abundant but is not airborne very far. It has become customary to plant one male palm for every 48 or 50 females to provide pollen for artificial pollination which is an ancient practice. In Saudi Arabia and a few other areas of the Old World and in California and Arizona, the long spines on the petioles are first removed to facilitate the pollinating operation. Traditionally, a few strands of open male flowers are put upside-down in a female inflorescence while it is still upright, and a cord is bound around the latter to keep the strands in place when the cluster enlarges and bends downward. However, the pollen can be dried and will keep for 6 months at room temperature. Pollen stored for one year at 8°F (-13.33°C) has given 58%fruit set. Some has been found viable after 7 years of storage, and it is reported that pollen has been kept 14 years in Iran. There are various techniques for applying stored pollen to the female flowers. It may be dusted on by a tractor-drawn, convertible pollen/pesticide machine, or applied with a cotton pad, or sprayed on with a long tubed applicator or other device. Lack of pollination results in small, seedless fruits. In acute shortages, pollen of another species of Phoenix or of some other genera may be used.
Climate
The date palm must have full sun. It cannot live in the shade. It will grow in all warm climates where the temper ature rarely falls to 20°F (-6.67°C). When the palm is dormant, it can stand temperatures that low, but when in flower or fruit the mean temperature must be above 64°F (17.78°C). Commercial fruit production is possible only where there is a long, hot growing season with daily maximum temperatures of 90°F (32.22°C) and virtually no rain—less than 1/2 in (1.25 cm) in the ripening season. The date can tolerate long periods of drought though, for heavy bearing, it has a high water requirement. This is best supplied by periodic flooding from the rivers in North Africa and by subsurface water rather than by rain. (See remarks on irrigation under "Culture").
Soil
The date thrives in sand, sandy loam, clay and other heavy soils. It needs good drainage and aeration. It is remarkably tolerant of alkali. A moderate degree of salinity is not harmful but excessive salt will stunt growth and lower the quality of the fruit.
Propagation
Date palms grow readily from seeds if the seeds and seedlings are kept constantly wet. But seedlings are variable and take 6 to 10 years to fruit. Furthermore, 50% of the seedlings may turn out to be males. The best and common means of propagation is by transplanting the suckers, or offshoots when they are 3 to 5 years old and weigh 40 to 75 lbs (18-34 kg). They are usually separated from the parent palm as needed, but in southern Algeria suckers are often put on sale standing in tubs of water. Some offshoots are maintained in nurseries until roots are formed, though most are set directly in the field after a seasoning period of 10 to 15 days just lying on the ground, in order to lose 12 to 15% of their moisture. In parts of Egypt subject to annual flooding, very large offshoots—up to 500lbs (226 kg) are planted to avoid water damage. In general, it is said that at least 2 offshoots can be taken from each palm annually for a period of 10 to 15 years. The potential of tissue culture for multiplication of date palms is being explored in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and in California.
Culture
In Tunisia, in former times, it was customary to plant 200 date palms per acre (500/ha). Today, optimum density is considered to be 50 per acre (120/ha) and this is about the standard in the Coachella Valley of California, but small-growing palms may be set much closer. The off shoots, trimmed back 1/3 or 1/4, leaving some of the stiff outer leaves to protect the inner ones, are usually planted 30 to 33 ft (9-10 m) apart each way. The holes should be 3 ft (0.9 m) wide and deep, prepared and enriched several months in advance, and may be encircled by a watering ditch. If the soil dries out prior to planting, the holes are filled with water at that time. In Algeria and Oman, the palms may be set much deeper in order to be closer to ground water, but this may result in drowning the palms when irrigating or they may be smothered by sandstorms.
Planting may be done at any time of year, but most often takes place in spring or fall. In Tunisia planting is done in April and May. The base is set vertically in the ground and the curving fronds will gradually assume an upright position, especially if the concave side is set to face south. Most plants will root in 2 months if the soil is kept constantly moist, while some may be delayed for a year or even several years before they show vigorous growth. Some growers expect a loss of 25% of the off shoots. Formerly, the young plants in nursery rows were wrapped nearly to the top with old leaves, paper or burlap sacks for the first year to prevent dehydration by cold, heat or wind. But it is now held that such wrapping interferes with the proper development of the leaves.
The offshoots that survive may begin to bloom in 3 years and fruit a year later but a substantial crop is not possible before the 5th or 6th year. In 8 or 10 years, the date will attain full production and it will keep on for a century though productivity declines after 60 to 80 years and also the flowers will be too high to pollinate and the fruits too high to pick. The palm grows at the rate of 1 to 11/2 ft (30-45 cm) a year and can reach 20 ft in 15 to 20 years depending on the cultivar and soil and water conditions.
In Iraq, date palms are fertilized once a year with manure at the rate of 44 lbs (20 kg) per tree. Commercial fertilizers are utilized in Saudi Arabia and the United States. Of more importance is the supply of water, a large amount being necessary and it is usually supplied by irrigation ditches. In some Old World plantations rising tides cause rivers to flood the ditches twice a day. Where this natural irrigation does not occur, the palms are watered 15 to 40 times a year. Overhead moisture (including rain) during fruit development will cause minute cracks (checking), beginning at the apex of the fruit which ultimately darkens. In California, the fruit clusters are covered with paper bags to shelter them from rain, dust, and predators.
The female inflorescences may be shortened, thinned out, or some removed entirely at pollinating time, or several weeks later when the stalk has drooped lower, in order to conserve the palm's energy for the following season. Some growers advise leaving no more than 12 bunches per palm. Many leave only 30 strands per cluster, each with about 30 fruits. Without thinning, fruits would be borne only every other year. During the pollinating operation, a grower may tie the elongating flower stalk to a palm frond to prevent breaking when later laden with fruit.
The palms are pruned twice a year, dry fronds being removed in the fall and the leaf bases may be taken off in the spring in order that their fiber may be used as a substitute for coir
In Iraq, growth regulators have been experimentally applied to developing dates. In 'Zahdi' and 'Sayer', naphthaleneacetic acid, at 60 ppm, applied 15 to 16 weeks after pollination, improved quality and increased fruit weight by 39%. Moisture content was elevated. Ripening was delayed for 30 days or more.
In the Old World, most date plantations are intercropped with vegetables, cereals or fodder crops in the first few years and subsequently with low growing fruit trees or grapevines. Some authorities hold that this practice distracts the grower from proper care of the dates. In mechanized plantations, intercropping is not possible inasmuch as space must be left for the mobile equipment.
Yield
Ordinarily, in palms 5 to 8 years old, the first crop will be 17.5 to 22 lbs (8-10 kg) per palm; at 13 years, 132 to 176 lbs (60-80 kg). Some improved cultivars, at high densities, have yielded over 220 lbs (100 kg) per year. 'Deglet Noor' in California may yield 4.5 to 7 tons per acre (11-17 tons/ha).
Harvesting and Ripening
Some high-quality dates are picked individually by hand, but most are harvested by cutting off the entire cluster. In North Africa, the harvesters climb the palms, use forked sticks or ropes to lower the fruit clusters, or they may pass the clusters carefully down from hand to hand. Growers in California and Saudi Arabia use various mechanized means to expedite harvesting—saddles, extension ladders, or mobile steel towers with catwalks for pickers. All fruits in a cluster and all clusters on a palm do not ripen at the same time. A number of pickings may have to be made over a period of several weeks. In the Coachella Valley, dates ripen from late September through December and there are 6 to 8 pickings per palm.
Dates go through 4 stages of development: 1) Chimri, or Kimri, stage, the first 17 weeks after pollination: green, hard, bitter, 80% moisture, 50% sugars (glucose and fructose) by dry weight; 2) Khalal stage, the next 6 weeks: become full grown, still hard; color changes to yellow, orange or red, sugars increase, become largely sucrose; 3 ) Rutab stage, the next 4 weeks: half-ripe; soften, turn light brown; some sucrose reverts to reducing sugar which gains prominence; 4) Tamar stage: ripe; the last 2 weeks; in soft dates, the sugar becomes mostly reducing sugar; semi-dry and dry dates will have nearly 50% each of sucrose and reducing sugars.
Soft dates may be picked early while they are still light colored. Semi dry dates may be picked as soon as they are soft and then ripened artificially at temperatures of 80° to 95°F (26.67°-35°C), depending on the cultivar. Dry dates may be left on the palm until they are fully ripe. Dry dates that have become too dehydrated and hardened on the palm are rehydrated by soaking in cold, tepid or hot water, or by exposure to steam or a humid atmosphere. Extremely dry weather will cause dates to shrivel on the palm. In the Sudan, the fruits are picked when just mature and then are ripened in jars to prevent so much loss of moisture. Rain, high humidity or cool temperatures during the maturing period may cause fruit drop or checking, splitting of the skin, darkening, blacknose, imperfect maturation, and excessive moisture content, or even rotting. Under such adverse weather conditions, as may occur in the Salt River Valley, Arizona, dates must be harvested while still immature and ripened artificially. In the Old World, there are many different methods of doing this: storing in earthen jars, placing the jars in sun hot enough to prevent spoilage, boiling the fruits in water and then sun drying. In Australia, entire clusters are kept under cover with the cut end of the stalk in water until the fruits are fully ripe. In modern packing houses, prematurely harvested dates are ripened in controlled atmospheres, the degrees of temperature and humidity varying with the nature of the cultivar.
Where there is low atmospheric humidity outdoors and adequate sunshine, harvested dates are sun dried whole or cut in half. For fresh shipment in California, the normally ripe, harvested fruits are carried to packing plants, weighed, inspected by agents of the United States Department of Agriculture, fumigated, cleaned, graded, packed, stored under refrigeration, and released to markets according to demand. Saudi Arabia has constructed a number of extra-modern processing plants for fumigation, washing, drying, and packing of dates prior to cold storage.
Keeping Quality
Slightly underripe 'Deglet Noor' dates will keep at 32°F (0°C) up to 10 months; fully mature, for 5 to 6 months. Freezing will extend the storage life for a much longer period. In India, sun-dried dates, buried in sand, have kept well for 1 1/2 years and then have been devoured by worms.
Pests and Diseases
Unripe fruits are attacked by Coccotrypes daclyliperda which makes them fall prematurely. Ripe fruits are often infested by nitidulids—Carpophilus hemipterus, C. multilatus (C. dimidiatus), Urophorus humeralis, and Heptoncus luteolus, which cause decay. Control by insecticides is necessary to avoid serious losses. In Israel, the fruit clusters are covered with netting to protect them from such pests as Vespa orientalis, Cadra figulilella and Arenipes sabella as well as from depredations by lizards and birds.
In Pakistan, the red weevil, or Indian palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, bores into the leaf bases at the top of the trunk, causing the entire crown to wither and die. The rhinocereus beetle, or black palm beetle, Oryctes rhinocerus, occasionally attacks the date. Its feeding damage may provide entrance-ways for the weevil. Scale insects may infest the leaves and the trunk. They have been controlled by trimming off the heavily infested leaves, spraying the remaining ones, and treating the fire resistant trunk with a blowtorch. Two of the most destructive scales are the Marlatt scale, Phoenicoccus marlatti; which attacks the thick leaf bases, and the Parlatoria scale, Parlatoria blanchardii, which is active in summer. The latter was the object of an eradication campaign in California and Arizona in the late 1930's. The date mite scars the fruits while they are still green.
A tineid moth and a beetle, Lasioderma testacea, have damaged stored dates in the Punjab. Dates held in storage are subject to invasion by the fig-moth, Ephestia cautella, and the Indian meal-moth, Plodia interpunctella.
Fusarium albedinis causes the disastrous Bayoud, or Baioudh, disease in Morocco and Algeria. It is evidenced by a progressive fading and wilting of the leaves. Over a 9-year study period of 26 resistant varieties in Morocco, Bayoud disease reduced the planting density from 364 palms per acre (900/ha) to 121 to 142 per acre (300-350/ha). It is because of this disease that 'Medjool' can no longer be grown commercially in Morocco and Algeria.
Decay of the inflorescence is caused by Manginiella scaeltae in humid seasons. Several brown stains will be seen on the unopened spathe and the pedicels of the opened cluster will be coated with white "down". Palm leaf pustule, small, dark-brown or black cylindrical eruptions exoding yellow spores, resulting from infestation by the fungus Graphiola phoenicis, is widespread but often a serious problem in Egypt. Date palm decline may be physiological or the result of a species of the fungus genus Omphalia. Diplodia disease is a fungus manifestation on leafstalks and offshoots and it may kill the latter if not controlled. The fungus caused condition called "black scorch" stunts, distorts and blackens leaves and adjacent inflorescences. Other fungus diseases include pinhead spot (Diderma effusum), gray blight (Pestalotia palmarum) and spongy white rot (Polyporus adustus). The date, as well as its relative, Phoenix canariensis Hort. ex Chaub., has shown susceptibility to lethal yellowing in Florida and Texas. No commercial plantings have been affected.
Food Uses
Dry or soft dates are eaten out-of-hand, or may be seeded and stuffed, or chopped and used in a great variety of ways: on cereal, in pudding, bread, cakes, cookies, ice cream, or candy bars. The pitting may be done in factories either by crushing and sieving the fruits or, with more sophistication, by piercing the seed out, leaving the fruit whole. The calyces may be mechanically removed also. Surplus dates are made into cubes, paste, spread, powder (date sugar), jam, jelly, juice, sirup, vinegar or alcohol. Decolored and filtered date juice yields a clear invert sugar solution. Libya is the leading producer of date sirup and alcohol.
Cull fruits are dehydrated, ground and mixed with grain to form a very nutritious stockfeed. Dried dates are fed to camels, horses and dogs in the Sahara desert. In northern Nigeria, dates and peppers added to the native beer are believed to make it less intoxicating. The First International Date Conference was held in Tripoli, Libya in 1959, and led to the development of a special program under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to promote the commercial utilizetion of substandard or physically defective dates.
Young leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable, as is the terminal bud or heart, though its removal kills the palm. In India, date seeds are roasted, ground, and used to adulterate coffee. The finely ground seeds are mixed with flour to make bread in times of scarcity.
In North Africa, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, date palms are tapped for the sweet sap which is converted into palm sugar, molasses or alcoholic beverages, but each palm should not be tapped more than 2 or 3 times. Tapping the edible date palm interferes with fruit production and it is wiser to tap P. sylvestris, which is not valued for its fruit, or some other of the 20 well-known palm species exploited for sugar. When the terminal bud is cut out for eating, the cavity fills with a thick, sweet fluid (called lagbi in India) that is drunk for refreshment but is slightly purgative. It ferments in a few hours and is highly intoxicating. Fresh spathes, by distillation, yield an aromatic fluid enjoyed by the Arabian people.
Other Uses
Seeds: Date seeds have been soaked in water until soft and then fed to horses, cattle, camels, sheep and goats. Dried and ground up, they are now included in chicken feed. They contain 7.17-9% moisture, 1.82-5.2% protein. 6.8-9.32% fat, 65.5% carbohydrates, 6.4-13 6% fiber, 0.89-1.57% ash, also sterols and estrone, and an alkali-soluble polysaccharide. The seeds contain 6 to 8% of a yellow-green, non-drying oil suitable for use in soap and cosmetic products. The fatty acids of the oil are: lauric, 8%; myristic, 4%; palmitic, 25%; stearic, 10%, oleic, 45%, linoleic, 10%; plus some caprylic and capric acid. Date seeds may also be processed chemically as a source of oxalic acid, the yield amounting to 65%. In addition, the seeds are burned to make charcoal for silversmiths, and they are often strung in necklaces.
Leaves: In Italy, there are some groves of date palms maintained solely to supply the young leaves for religious use on Palm Sunday. In Spain, only the leaves of male palms are utilized for this purpose. In North Africa, the leaves have been commonly used for making huts. Mature leaves are made into mats, screens, baskets, crates and fans. The processed leaflets, combined with ground up peanut shells and corn cobs, are used for making insulating board. The leaf petioles have been found to be a good source of cellulose pulp. Dried, they are used as walking sticks, brooms, fishing floats, and fuel. The midribs are made into baskets. The leaf sheaths have been prized for their scent. Fiber from the old leaf sheaths is used for various purposes including packsaddles, rope, coarse cloth and large hats. It has been tested as material for filtering drainage pipes in Iraq, as a substitute for imported filters. Analyses of the leaves show: 0.4-0.66% nitrogen; 0.025 0.062% phosphorus; 0.33-0.66% potassium; 10-16.4% ash. There is some coumarin in the leaves and leaf sheaths.
Fruit clusters: The stripped fruit clusters are used as brooms. The fruit stalks contain 0.28-0.42% nitrogen, 0.017-0.04% phosphorus; 3.46-4.94% potassium; 7.7-9.88% ash.
Fruits: In Pakistan, a viscous, thick sirup made from the ripe fruits, is employed as a coating for leather bags and pipes to prevent leaking.
Wood: Posts and rafters for huts are fashioned of the wood from the trunk of the date palm, though this wood is lighter than that of the coconut. It is soft in the center and not very durable. That of male trees and old, un productive females is readily available and used for aqueducts, bridges and various kinds of construction, also parts of dhows. All left over parts of the trunk are burned for fuel.
Medicinal Uses: The fruit, because of its tannin content, is used medicinally as a detersive and astringent in intestinal troubles. In the form of an infusion, decoction, sirup or paste, is administered as a treatment for sore throat, colds, bronchial catarrh. It is taken to relieve fever, cystisis, gonorrhea, edema, liver and abdominal troubles. And it is said to counteract alcohol intoxication.
The seed powder is an ingredient in a paste given to relieve ague.
A gum that exudes from the wounded trunk is employed in India for treating diarrhea and genito-urinary ailments. It is diuretic and demulcent. The roots are used against toothache. The pollen yields an estrogenic principle, estrone, and has a gonadotropic effect on young rats.
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Date Palm - Phoenix dactylifera Ltag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3972006-10-09T18:03:45Z2006-10-09T18:13:54Z Date Palms, Merzouga, Morocco. The Date Palm Phoenix dactylifera is a palm, extensively cultivated for its edible fruit. Due to its long history of cultivation for fruit, its exact native distribution is unknown, but the date palm probably originated...
Date Palms, Merzouga, Morocco. The Date Palm Phoenix dactylifera is a palm, extensively cultivated for its edible fruit. Due to its long history of cultivation for fruit, its exact native distribution is unknown, but the date palm probably originated somewhere in the desert oases of northern Africa, and perhaps also southwest Asia. It is a medium-sized tree, 15-25 m tall, often clumped with several trunks from a single root system, but also often growing singly. The leaves are pinnate, 3-5 m long, with spines on the petiole and about 150 leaflets; the leaflets are 30 cm long and 2 cm broad. The full span of the crown ranges from 6-10 m.
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History of dates
Dates have been a staple food of the Middle East for thousands of years. The date palm is believed to have originated around the Persian Gulf, and has been cultivated in ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 6000 BC. There is archeological evidence of cultivation in eastern Arabia in 4,000 BC.
In later times, Arabs spread dates around northern Africa and into Spain, and dates were introduced into California by the Spaniards in 1765, around Mission San Ignacio.
Fruit
The fruit of the Date Palm is a drupe known as a date. They are oval-cylindrical, 3-7 cm long, and 2-3 cm diameter, and when unripe, range from bright red to bright yellow in colour, depending on variety. Dates contain a single seed about 2-2.5 cm long and 6-8 mm thick. Three main Cultivar Groups of date exist; soft (e.g. 'Barhee', 'Halawy', 'Khadrawy', 'Medjool'), semi-dry (e.g. 'Dayri', 'Deglet Noor', 'Zahidi'), and dry (e.g. 'Thoory'). The type of fruit depends on the glucose, fructose and sucrose content.
Dates are naturally wind pollinated, but in modern commercial horticulture are entirely pollinated manually. Natural pollination requires about an equal number of male and female plants. However, with assistance one male can pollenize up to 50 females. Since the males are of value only as pollenizers, this allows the growers to use their resources for many more fruit producing female plants. Some growers do not even maintain any male plants as male flowers become available at local markets at pollination time. Manual pollination is done by skilled laborers on ladders, or less often the pollen may be blown onto the female flowers by wind machine.
Parthenocarpic cultivars are available but the seedless fruit is smaller and of lower quality.
Dates ripen in four stages, which are known throughout the world by their Arabic names kimri (unripe), khalal (full-size, crunchy), rutab (ripe, soft), tamr (ripe, sun-dried). A 100 gram portion of fresh dates is a premium source of vitamin C and supplies 230 kcal (960 kJ) of energy. Since dates contain relatively little water, they do not become much more concentrated upon drying, although the vitamin C disappears in the process.
Dates are an important traditional crop in Iraq, Arabia, and north Africa west to Morocco. In Islamic countries, dates and milk are a traditional first meal when the sun sets during Ramadan. Dates (especially Medjool and Deglet Noor) are also cultivated in southern California in the United States.
Date clusters hanging down from the crown[edit]
Cultivars of dates
A large number of date cultivars are grown. The most important are:
'Aabel' - common in Libya
'Amir Hajj' - from Iraq, these are soft with a thin skin and thick flesh.
''Abid Rahim' (Arabic: ??? ?????), from Sudan
'Amer' (amir) hajj - called "the visitor's date"
'Barakawi' (Arabic: ???????), from Sudan
'Barhee' (barhi) (from Arabic barh, a hot wind) - these are nearly cylindrical, light amber to dark brown when ripe; soft, with thick flesh and rich flavour. One of the few varieties which are good in the khalal stage when they are yellow (like a grape instead of dried like a raisin).
'Bireir' (Arabic: ?????) - from Sudan
'Deglet Noor' (Arabic: 'translucent' or 'date of light') - So named because the centre appears light or golden when held up to the sun. This is a leading date in Algeria, the USA, and Tunisia, and in the latter country it is grown in inland oases and is the chief export cultivar. It is semi-dry and not very sweet.
'Derrie' or 'Dayri' (the 'Monastery' date) - from southern Iraq - these are long, slender, nearly black, and soft.
'Empress'- developed by the Deval Family in Indio California USA from a seedling of 'Deglet Noor'. It is larger than 'Deglet Noor', somewhat softer and sweeter. It generally has a light tan top half and brown bottom half.
'Ftimi' or 'Alligue' - these are grown in inland oases of Tunisia.
'Halawy' (Halawi) (Arabic: 'sweet') - these are soft, and extremely sweet, small to medium in size.
'Haleema' - in Hoon, Libya (Haleema is a woman's name)
'Hayany' - from Egypt (Hayani) (Hayany is a man's name) - these dates dark-red to nearly black and soft.
'Iteema' - common in Algeria
'Khadrawy' (Arabic: 'green') - this is the cultivar most favoured by Arabs, it is a soft, very dark date considered to be of the highest quality.
'Khalasah' (Arabic: 'quintessence') - the most famous palm in Saudi Arabia, famous for its sweetness level that is not high nor low, thus, suits most people. Its fruit is called 'Khlas'. Its famous place is 'Huffuf' (Al-Ahsa) in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (Al-Sharqheyah).
'Khastawi' (Khusatawi, Kustawy) - this is the leading soft date in Iraq; it is syrupy and small in size, prized for dessert.
'Maktoom' (Arabic: 'hidden') - this is a large, red-brown, thick-skinned, soft, medium-sweet date.
'Manakbir' - a large fruit which ripens early.
'Medjool' (Arabic: 'unknown') - from Morocco, also grown in the USA and Israel; a large, sweet and succulent date.
'Migraf' (Mejraf) - very popular in Southern Yemen, these are large, golden-amber dates.
'Mgmaget Ayuob' - from Hoon, Libya
'Mishriq' (Arabic: 'East' - ????)? - from Sudan and Saudi Arabia
'Saidy' (Saidi) - soft, very sweet, these are popular in Libya.
'Sayer' (Sayir) (Arabic: 'common') - these dates are dark orange-brown, of medium size, soft and syrupy.
'Tagyat' - common in Libya
'Tamej' - in Libya
'Thoory' (Thuri) - popular in Algeria, this dry date is brown-red when cured with a bluish bloom and very wrinkled skin. Its flesh is sometimes hard and brittle but the flavour described as sweet and nutty.
'Umeljwary' - in Libya
'Zahidi' (Zahdi) (Arabic: 'nobility'?) - these medium size, cylindrical, light golden-brown semi-dry dates are very sugary, and sold as soft, medium-hard and hard.
Production
World production of dates was approximately 6.7 Mio tonnes in 2004 (FAO statistics [1]). The major producers are:
Egypt: 1,100,000 t (16.2% of world production)
Iran: 880,000 t (13.0%)
Saudi Arabia: 830,000 t (12.3%)
United Arab Emirates: 760,000 t (11.2%)
Pakistan: 650,000 t (9.6%)
Algeria: 450,000 t (6.6%)
Sudan: 330,000 t
Oman: 240,000 t
Libya: 140,000 t
Others: 1,140,000 t
Iraq used to be a major producer of dates but in recent years production and exports have been curtailed.
The First International Date Conference was held in Tripoli, Libya in 1959, and led to the development of a special program under the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to promote the commercial utilisation of substandard or physically defective dates.
Food uses
Dry or soft dates are eaten out-of-hand, or may be seeded and stuffed with fillings such as almonds, candied orange and lemon peel, and marzipan. Dates can also be chopped and used in a range of sweet and savoury dishes, from tajines (tagines) in Morocco to puddings, bread, cakes and other dessert items. Dates are also processed into cubes, paste, spread, date syrup or "honey" called dibs, powder (date sugar), vinegar or alcohol. Recent innovations include chocolate-covered dates and products such as sparkling date juice, used in some Islamic countries as a non-alcoholic version of champagne, for special occasions and religious times such as Ramadan.
Dates can also be dehydrated, ground and mixed with grain to form a nutritious stockfeed. Dried dates are fed to camels, horses and dogs in the Sahara desert. In northern Nigeria, dates and peppers added to the native beer are believed to make it less intoxicating.
Young date leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable, as is the terminal bud or heart, though its removal kills the palm. The finely ground seeds are mixed with flour to make bread in times of scarcity. The flowers of the date palm are also edible. Traditionally the female flowers are the most available for sale and weigh 300-400 grams. The flower buds are used in salad or pounded with dried fish to make a condiment for bread.
In India, North Africa, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, date palms are tapped for the sweet sap which is converted into palm sugar (known as jaggery or gur), molasses or alcoholic beverages.
Other uses
Date Palm stump showing the wood structureDate seeds are soaked and ground up for animal feed. Their oil is suitable for use in soap and cosmetic products. They can also be processed chemically as a source of oxalic acid. The seeds are also burned to make charcoal for silversmiths, and can be strung in necklaces. Date seeds are also ground and used in the manner of coffee beans, or as an additive to coffee.
Date Palm leaves are used for Palm Sunday in the Christian religion. In North Africa, they are commonly used for making huts. Mature leaves are also made into mats, screens, baskets and fans. Processed leaves can be used for insulating board. Dried leaf petioles are a source of cellulose pulp, used for walking sticks, brooms, fishing floats and fuel. Leaf sheaths are prized for their scent, and fibre from them is also used for rope, coarse cloth and large hats.
Stripped fruit clusters are used as brooms. In Pakistan, a viscous, thick syrup made from the ripe fruits is used as a coating for leather bags and pipes to prevent leaking.
Date palm wood is used for posts and rafters for huts; it is lighter than coconut and not very durable. It is also used for construction such as bridges and aqueducts, and parts of dhows. Left over wood is burnt for fuel.
Date Palm leaves are used as a lulav in the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Where craft traditions still thrive, such as in the Sultanate of Oman, the palm tree is the most versatile of all indigeneous plants, and virtually every part of the tree is utilised to make functional items ranging from rope and baskets to bee-keeping hives, fishing boats, and traditional dwellings.
Traditional medicinal uses
Dates have a high tannin content and are used medicinally as a detersive and astringent in intestinal troubles. As an infusion, decoction, syrup or paste, is administered for sore throat, colds, bronchial catarrh, and taken to relieve fever and number of other complaints. One traditional belief is that it can counteract alcohol intoxication. The seed powder is also used in some traditional medicines.
A gum that exudes from the wounded trunk is employed in India for treating diarrhea and genito-urinary ailments. The roots are used against toothache. The pollen yields an estrogenic principle, estrone, and has a gonadotropic effect on young rats.
Diseases
Date Palms are susceptible to a disease called Bayoud disease which is caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. This disease, which kills many of the popular older cultivars like 'Deglet Noor', has led to a major decline in production where it is present, notably Morocco and western Algeria. New cultivars resistant to the disease are however being developed.
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Papyrus - from Egypttag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3962006-10-09T17:41:12Z2006-10-09T17:47:59Z Image of a papyrus plant...
Image of a papyrus plant]]>
Location of papyrus growth
Egypt is important for papyrus in two respects. First, papyrus plants grew almost exclusively in the region of the Nile delta. Secondly, the dry climate of Egypt made it possible for papyri to endure, in many cases, for over 2 millenia.
An Ancient Description of the Process
Pliny, Natural History, 13.74-82
Paper is made from the papyrus plant by separating it with a needle point into very thin strips as broad as possible. The choice quality comes from the center, and thence in the order of slicing. The (choice) quality in former times called 'hieratic' because it was devoted only to religious books has, out of flattery, taken on the name of Augustus, and the next quality that of Livia, after his wife, so that the 'hieratic' has dropped to third rank.
The next had been named 'amphitheatric' from its place of manufacture. At Rome Fannius' clever workshop took it up and refined it by careful processing, thus making a first-class paper out of a common one and renaming it after him; the paper not so reworked remained in its original grade as 'amphitheatic'.
Next is the 'Saitic', so called after the town where it is most abundant, made from inferior scraps, and from still nearer the rind the 'Taeneotic', named after a nearby place (this is sold, in fact, by weight not by quality). The 'emporitic', being useless for writing, provides envelopes for papers and wrappings for merchants. After this there is (only) the papyrus stalk, and its outermost husk is similar to a rush and useless even for rope except in moisture.
Paper of whatever grade is fabricated on a board moistened with water from the Nile: the muddy liquid serves as the bonding force. First there is spread flat on the board a layer consisting of strips of papyrus running vertically, as long as possible, with their ends squared off. After that a cross layer completes the construction. Then it is pressed in presses, and the sheets thus formed are dried in the sun and joined one to another, (working) in declining order of excellence down to the poorest. There are never more than twenty sheets in a roll.
There is great variation in their breadth, the best thirteen digits, the 'hieratic' two less, the 'Fannian' measures ten, the 'amphitheatic' one less, the 'Saitic' a few less--indeed not wide enough for the use of a mallet--and the narrow 'emporitic' does not exceed six digits. Beyond that, the qualities esteemed in paper are fineness, firmness, whiteness, and smoothness.
The Emperor Claudius changed the order of preference. The excess fineness of the 'Augustan' paper was insufficient to withstand the pressure of the pen; in addition, as it let the ink through there was always the fear of a blot from the back, and in other respects it was unattractive in appearance because excessively translucid. Consequently the vertical (under) layer was made of second-grade material and the horizontal layer of first-grade. He also increased its width to measure a foot.
There was also the 'macrocolum', a cubit wide, but experience revealed the defect that when one strip tears off it damages several columns of writing. For these reasons the 'Claudian' paper is preferred to all others; the 'Augustan' retains its importance for correspondence, and the 'Livian', which never had any first-grade elements but was all second-grade, retains its same place.
Rough spots are rubbed smooth with ivory or shell, but then the writing is apt to become scaly: the polished paper is shinier and less absorptive. Writing is also impeded if (in manufacture) the liquid was negligently applied in the first place; this fault is detected with the mallet, or even by odour if the application was too careless. Spots, too, are easily detected by the eye, but a strip inserted between two others, though bibulous from the sponginess of (such) papyrus, can scarcely be detected except when the writing runs--there is so much trickery in the business! The result is the additional labour of reprocessing.
Common paste made from finest flour is dissolved in boiling water with the merest sprinkle of vinegar, for carpenter's glue and gum are too brittle. A more painstaking process percolates boiling water through the crumb of leavened bread; by this method the substance of the intervening paste is so minimal that even the suppleness of linen is surpassed. Whatever paste is used ought to be no more or less than a day old. Afterwards it is flattened with the mallet and lightly washed with paste, and the resulting wrinkles are again removed and smoothed out with the mallet.
For more information on Pliny, see Pliny the Elder, Natural Historian and Scientist
Preparation for Writing
After the papyrus had been processed and made into sheets (and usually sheets into rolls), it could then be used as a writing material. Sometimes a scribe wrote on just one sheet and then rolled it up or folded it. Longer documents were written, at first, on a roll of papyrus in narrow columns. Since this could be cumbersome with a long document, papyrus came to be used in the form of the codex (ancestor to our modern book).
History of Papyrus and Its Discovery
The use of papyrus as a writing material goes back to extreme antiquity. The oldest written papyrus known to be in existence is, according to Kenyon (The Paleography of Greek Papyri, Oxford, 1899), an account-sheet belonging to the reign of the Egyptian king Assa, which is conjecturally dated circa 2600 B.C.
The size of the single sheet of papyrus was not constant in ancient times, and there ought never to have been any doubt of this fact. Kenyon has collected some measurements. For most non-literary documents (letters, accounts, receipts, etc.) a single sheet was sufficient; for longer texts, especially literary ones, the necessary sheets were stuck together and made into a roll. Rolls have been found measuring as much as 20 and even 45 yards.
The regular format for ancient works of literature was the papyrus roll. It was usual to write on that side of the sheet on which the fibres ran horizontally (recto); the other side (verso) was used only exceptionally. When a sheet of papyrus bears writing on both sides, in different hands, it may generally be assumed that the writing on the recto is the earlier of the two. Only in exceptional cases was there writing on both sides of the sheets of a papyrus roll.
In the later centuries of antiquity we find also the papyrus book or codex, which finally triumphs over the roll. It is not true that the transition from roll to book was the result of the introduction of parchment. To give only a few instances, the British Museum possesses a fragment of a papyrus codex of the Iliad, probably of the 3rd century A.D. Among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri there is a leaf from a codex of the gospels, containing Matthew 1:1-9,12,14-20, of the 3rd century, besides other fragments of Biblical codices. The University Library at Heidelberg possesses twenty-seven leaves from an old codex of the Septuagint. And the sayings of Jesus found at Oxyrhynchus are also on a leaf from a codex.
The first recorded purchase of papyri by European visitors to Egypt was in 1778. In that year a nameless dealer in antiquities bought from some peasants a papyrus roll of documents from the year 191 - 192 A.D., and looked on while they set fire to fifty or so others simply to enjoy the aromatic smoke that was produced. Since that date an enormous quantity of inscribed papyri in all possible languages, of ages varying from a thousand to nearly five thousand years, have been recovered from the magic soil of the ancient seats of civilisation in the Nile Valley. From about 1820 to 1840 the museums of Europe acquired quite a respectable number of papyri from Memphis and Letopolis in Middle Egypt, and from This, Panopolis, Thebes, Hermonthis, Elephantine, and Syene in Upper Egypt. Not many scholars took any notice of them at first, and only a very few read and profited by them.
The next decisive event, apart from isolated finds, was the discovery of papyri in the province of El-Fayûm (Middle Egypt) in 1877. To the north of the capital, Medinet el-Fayûm, lay a number of mounds of rubbish and debris, marking the site of the ancient "City of Crocodiles," afterwards called "The City of the Arsinoïtes," and these now yielded up hundreds and thousands of precious sheets and scraps. Since then there has been a rapid succession of big finds, which have not ceased even yet: we are still in a period of important discoveries. In the external history of the discoveries the most noteworthy feature is that so many of the papyri have been dug up with the spade from Egyptian rubbish-heaps. Antiquaries had set the example by excavating in search of the foundations of ancient temples or fragments of prehistoric pottery, and now the excavators seek papyri. The fact that so many of the papryi are found among the dust-heaps of ancient cities is a valuable indication of their general significance. The multitude of papyri from the Fayûm, from Oxyrhynchus-Behnesa, etc., do not, as was at first supposed, represent the remains of certain great archives. They have survived as part of the contents of ancient refuse-heaps and rubbish-shoots. There the men of old cast out their bundles of discarded documents, from offices of public and private, their worn-out books and parts of books; and there these things reposed, tranquilly abiding their undreamt-of fate.
(Adapted from Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, Trans. by Lionel R. M. Strachan, 1927 [First Edition 1908], pp. 26-32.)
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Papyrus - Cyperus papyrustag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3952006-10-09T17:33:44Z2006-10-09T17:50:44Z Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. Papyrus is first known to have been used in ancient Egypt (at least as far back as the First dynasty), but it was also widely used throughout the Mediterranean region, as well as inland parts of Europe and south-west Asia.]]>
Etymology
The English word papyrus derives, via Latin, from Greek ??????? papyros. It is interesting to note that Greek has a second word for papyrus, ?????? byblos (said to derive from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos). The Greek writer Theophrastos, who flourished during the 4th century BC, uses papuros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and bublos for the same plant when used for non-food products, such as cordage, basketry, or a writing surface. This latter usage finds its way into English in such words as bibliography, bibliophile, and bible. Papyrus is also the etymon of "paper", a similar substance.
It is often claimed that Egyptians referred to papyrus as pa-per-aa [p3y pr-?3] (lit., "that which is of Pharaoh"), apparently denoting that the Egyptian crown owned a monopoly on papyrus production. However no actual ancient text using this term is known. In the Egyptian language papyrus was known by the terms wadj [w3?], tjufy [?wfy], and djet [?t]. Thus in reality, Greek papyros has no known relation to any Egyptian word or phrase.
Manufacture and Use
A sheet of papyrus is made from the stem of the plant. The outer rind is first stripped off, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips of about 40 cm long. The strips are then placed side by side on a hard surface, with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. While still moist, the two layers are hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet is then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet of papyrus is polished with some rounded object, possibly a stone.
To form the long strip that a scroll required, a number of such sheets were united, placed so that all the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll's length were on one side, all the vertical fibres on the other. Greek texts were written on the recto, the lines following the fibres, parallel to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, expensive papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibres on the verso [1].
A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrusIn a dry climate like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of highly rot-resistant cellulose; but storage in humid conditions can result in molds attacking and eventually destroying the material. Imported papyrus that was once commonplace in Greece and Italy has since deteriorated beyond repair, but papyri are still being found in Egypt; extraordinary examples include the Elephantine papyri and the famous finds at Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi. The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, containing the library of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Julius Caesar's father-in-law, was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but has only been partially excavated.
In the first centuries BC and AD Papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls in order to form codices.
By 800 AD the use of parchment and vellum had replaced papyrus in many areas, though its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs. The reasons for this switch include the significantly higher durability of the hide-derived materials, particularly in moist climates, and the fact that they can be manufactured anywhere. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree and 1087 for an Arabic document. Papyrus was used as late as the 1100s in the Byzantine Empire, but there are no known surviving examples.
There have been sporadic attempts to revive the manufacture of papyrus during the past 250 years. The Scottish explorer James Bruce experimented in the late eighteenth century with papyrus plants from the Sudan, for papyrus had become extinct in Egypt. Also in the eighteenth century, a Sicilian named Saverio Landolina manufactured papyrus at Syracuse, where papyrus plants had continued to grow in the wild. The modern technique of papyrus production used in Egypt for the tourist trade was developed in 1962 by the Egyptian engineer Hassan Ragab using plants that had been reintroduced into Egypt in 1872 from France. Both Sicily and Egypt continue to have centres of limited papyrus production.
References
H. Idris Bell and T.C. Skeat, 1935. "Papyrus and its uses" (British Museum pamphlet).
Bierbrier, Morris Leonard, ed. 1986. Papyrus: Structure and Usage. British Museum Occasional Papers 60, ser. ed. Anne Marriott. London: British Museum Press.
?erný, Jaroslav. 1952. Paper and Books in Aancient Egypt: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered at University College London, 29 May 1947. London: H. K. Lewis. (Reprinted Chicago: Ares Publishers inc., 1977).
Leach, Bridget, and William John Tait. 2000. "Papyrus." In Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, edited by Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 227–253. Thorough technical discussion with extensive bibliography.
Leach, Bridget, and William John Tait. 2001. "Papyrus." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, edited by Donald Bruce Redford. Vol. 3 of 3 vols. Oxford, New York, and Cairo: Oxford University Press and The American University in Cairo Press. 22–24.
Parkinson, Richard Bruce, and Stephen G. J. Quirke. 1995. Papyrus. Egyptian Bookshelf. London: British Museum Press. General overview for a popular reading audience.
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Cypress - Monterrey - Cupressus macrocarpatag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3942006-10-09T17:26:56Z2006-10-09T17:30:43Z The "Lone Cypress" near Monterey, California. Cupressus macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress, Macrocarpa) is a species of cypress endemic to the central coast of California. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near Monterey and Carmel. These...
The "Lone Cypress" near Monterey, California. Cupressus macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress, Macrocarpa) is a species of cypress endemic to the central coast of California. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near Monterey and Carmel. These groves are protected, within Point Lobos State Reserve and Del Monte Forest. The natural habitat is noted for its cool, humid summers, almost constantly bathed by sea fog.]]>
References
Conifer Specialist Group (1998). Cupressus macrocarpa. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Listed as Vulnerable (VU D2 v2.3)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupressus_macrocarpa"
Categories: Cupressaceae | Trees of California
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Cypress - Fitzroyatag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3932006-10-09T17:13:13Z2006-10-09T17:25:25Z Fitzroya is a genus in the cypress family Cupressaceae with a single species, Fitzroya cupressoides native to the Andes mountains of southern Chile and adjoining Argentina, where it is an important member of the Valdivian temperate rain forests. The...
Fitzroya is a genus in the cypress family Cupressaceae with a single species, Fitzroya cupressoides native to the Andes mountains of southern Chile and adjoining Argentina, where it is an important member of the Valdivian temperate rain forests. The scientific name of the genus honours Robert FitzRoy; common names include Lahuan (the Mapuche Native American name), Alerce (South American Spanish), and Patagonian Cypress.]]>
References
Conifer Specialist Group (2000). Fitzroya cupressoides. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Listed as Endangered (EN A1cd+2cd v2.3)
Hill, R. S. and Whang, S. S. 1996. A new species of Fitzroya (Cupressaceae) from Oligocene sediments in north-western Tasmania. Australian Systematic Botany 9(6): 867-875.
External links
Fitzroya cupressoides in Encyclopedia of the Chilean Flora
Gymnosperm Database - Fitzroya cupressoides
Fitzroya cupressoides in Chilebosque ]]>
Cypress - Callitris columellaristag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3922006-10-09T17:07:05Z2006-10-09T17:12:57Z Callitris is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 15 species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other two (C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata) native to New Caledonia. The...
Callitris is a genus of coniferous trees in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are 15 species in the genus, of which 13 are native to Australia and the other two (C. neocaledonica, C. sulcata) native to New Caledonia. The most widely used common name is cypress-pine, a name shared by the closely related genus Actinostrobus.]]>
Callitris verrucosa cones
The male cones are small, 3-6 mm long, and are located at the tips of the twigs. The female cones start out similarly inconspicuous, maturing in 18-20 months to 1-3 cm long and wide, globular to ovoid (acute in C. macleayana), with six overlapping, thick, woody scales, arranged in two whorls of three (often 8 scales in C. macleayana). The cones remain closed on the trees for many years, opening only after being scorched by a bushfire; this then releases the seeds to grow on the newly cleared burnt ground.
The genus is divided into two sections, with the atypical C. macleayana in sect. Octoclinis, and all the other species in sect. Callitris. Some botanists treat C. macleayana in a separate genus, as Octoclinis macleayana. C. macleayana is also distinct in occurring in rainforest on the east coast of Australia; the other species all grow on dry sites.
The closest relatives of Callitris are Actinostrobus from southwest Western Australia, which differs in its cones having several basal whorls of small sterile scales, and Neocallitropsis from New Caledonia, distinct in its needle-like leaves throughout the life of the plant (not just seedlings) and always arranged in whorls of four (not three).
The wood of cypress-pines is light, soft and aromatic. It can be easily split and resists decay. It is used to make furniture, indoor and outdoor panelling, and fence posts. Cypress-pines are occasionally planted as ornamental trees, but their use is restricted by the high risks imposed by their very high flammability in bushfires.
Callitris columellaris is naturalised in southern Florida, where it is usually known by the synonym Callitris glaucophylla.
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Coconut - Still More Infotag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3912006-10-07T19:05:56Z2006-10-07T19:53:34Z The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4-6 m long,...
The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4-6 m long, pinnae 60-90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut refers to the fruit of the coconut palm.
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Origins and cultivation
A man climbing a tree to harvest coconuts. Behind the tree a young plant is visibleThe origins of this plant are the subject of controversy with some authorities claiming it is native to southeast Asia, while others claim its origin is in northwestern South America. Fossil records from New Zealand indicate that small, coconut-like plants grew there as far back 15 million years ago. Even older fossils have been uncovered in Rajasthan & Maharashtra, India. Regardless of its origin, the coconut has spread across much of the tropics, probably aided in many cases by sea-faring peoples. The fruit is light and buoyant and presumably spread significant distances by marine currents: fruits collected from the sea as far north as Norway have been found to be viable (subsequently germinated under the right conditions). In the Hawaiian Islands, the coconut is regarded as a Polynesian introduction, first brought to the Islands by early Polynesian voyagers from their homelands in the South Pacific.
The coconut palm thrives on sandy soils and is highly tolerant of salinity. It prefers areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall (750 to 2,000 mm annually), which makes colonising shorelines of the tropics relatively straightforward. Coconuts also need high humidity (70–80%+) for optimum growth, which is why they are rarely seen in areas with low humidity (e.g. the Mediterranean), even where temperatures are high enough (regularly above 24°C). They are very hard to establish and grow in dry climates without frequent irrigation. The only two states in the U.S. where coconut palms can be grown and reproduce outdoors without irrigation are Hawaii and Florida. The farthest north a coconut palm has been known to grow outdoors is in Newport Beach, California along the Pacific Coast Highway. In order for coconut palm to survive in Southern California they need sandy soil, minimal water in the winter to prevent root rot and would benefit from root heating coils.
The flowers of the coconut palm are polygamomonoecious, with both male and female flowers in the same inflorescence. Flowering occurs continuously, with female flowers producing seeds. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some dwarf varieties are self-pollinating.
The fruitMaturing Coconuts on the tree
Botanically, a coconut is a simple dry fruit known as a fibrous drupe (not a true nut). The husk (mesocarp) is composed of fibres called coir and there is an inner "stone" (the endocarp). This hard endocarp (the outside of the coconut as sold in the shops of non-tropical countries) has three germination pores that are clearly visible on the outside surface once the husk is removed. It is through one of these that the radicle emerges when the embryo germinates. Adhering to the inside wall of the endocarp is the testa, with a thick albuminous endosperm (the coconut "meat"), the white and fleshy edible part of the seed.
When viewed on end, the endocarp and germination pores resemble the face of a monkey, the Portuguese word for which is macaco, sometimes abbreviated to coco, hence the name of the fruit. The specific name nucifera is Latin for nut bearing.
When the coconut is still green, the endosperm inside is thin and tender, a favourite snack. But the main reason to pick the nut at that stage is to drink its juice; a big nut contains up to one litre of refreshing drink. When the nut has ripened and the outer husk has turned brown, a couple of months later, it will fall from the tree of its own accord. At that time the endosperm has thickened and hardened, while the juice has become somewhat bitter.
Coconut flower.
To open a coconut, remove the outer husk (if not purchased already removed) and pierce two of the three eyes of the fruit (one for the juice to come out of, one to enable air to go in); drain the juice from the fruit. Since coconuts have a naturally-forming fracture point, they can be opened by taking a heavy knife, such as a meat cleaver, and striking the coconut with the flat edge of the knife. Or you can use a flat-bladed screwdriver and a hammer (which is easier, and may be safer than using a cleaver). After inserting the screwdriver slightly, twist it to crack the shell. The coconut should then be turned, and this process repeated until there is a contiguous crack in the shell around the entire fruit. Afterwards, the fruit can be separated at this fracture point. An alternative method is to first drain the juice from the coconut and then place it in an oven at 180 °C for 20 minutes. The heat will crack the shell as well as loosen the flesh, enough so that it will almost fall off.
Coconuts affected by Eriophyid mites.
When the nut is still green the husk is very hard, but green nuts rarely fall, only when they have been attacked by moulds, etc. By the time the nut naturally falls, the husk has become brown, the coir has become dryer and softer, and the nut is less likely to cause damage when it drops. Still, there have been instances of coconuts falling from trees and injuring people, and claims of some fatalities. This was the subject of a paper published in 1984 that won the Ig Nobel Prize in 2001. Falling coconut deaths are often used as a comparison to shark attacks, making the claim that it is more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than by a shark. There is no evidence of people being killed in this manner (column from The Straight Dope). However William Wyatt Gill, an early LMS missionary on Mangaia recorded a story in which Kaiara, the concubine of King Tetui, was killed by a falling, green nut. The offending tree was immediately cut down. This was around 1777, the time of Captain Cook's visit.
In some parts of the world, trained monkeys are used to harvest coconuts. Training schools for monkeys still exist in southern Thailand. Competitions are held each year to discover the fastest harvester.
Uses
All parts of the coconut palm are useful, and the trees have a comparatively high yield (up to 75 fruits per year); it therefore has significant economic value. The name for the coconut palm in Sanskrit is kalpa vriksha, which translates as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life". In Malay, the coconut is known as pokok seribu guna, "the tree of a thousand uses". In the Philippines, the coconut is commonly given the title "Tree of Life".
Uses of the various parts of the palm include:
[Culinary uses
The white, fleshy part of the seed is edible and used fresh or dried in cooking.
The cavity is filled with "coconut water" containing sugars, fibre, proteins, anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals, which provide excellent isotonic electrolyte balance, and an exceptional nutritional food source, which is why it is used as a refreshing drink throughout the humid tropics. It is also used in the making of the gelatinous dessert nata de coco. Mature fruits have significantly less liquid than young immature coconuts. Coconut water is sterile until the coconut is opened (unless the coconut is spoiled).
Sport fruits are also harvested, primarily in the Philippines, where they are known as macapuno.
Coconut milk (which is approximately 17% fat) is made by processing grated coconut with hot water or hot milk which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds from the fibre, and should not be confused with the juice found naturally in young coconuts, called coconut water or coconut juice.
Coconut cream is what rises to the top when coconut milk is refrigerated and left to set.
The leftover fibre from coconut milk production is used as livestock feed.
The sap derived from incising the flower clusters of the coconut is fermented to produce palm wine, also known as "toddy" or, in the Philippines, tuba. The sap can also be reduced by boiling to create a sweet syrup or candy.
Apical buds of adult plants are edible and are known as "palm-cabbage" (though harvest of this kills the tree).
The interior of the growing tip may be harvested as heart-of-palm and is considered a rare delicacy. Harvesting this also kills the tree. Hearts of palm are often eaten in salads; such a salad is sometimes called "millionaire's salad".
Non-culinary uses
Coconut water can be used as an intravenous fluid (see PMID 10674546).
The coir (the fibre from the husk of the coconut) is used in ropes, mats, brushes, caulking boats and as stuffing fibre; it is also used extensively in horticulture for making potting compost.
Copra is the dried meat of the seed which is the source of coconut oil.
The leaves provide materials for baskets and roofing thatch.
Palmwood comes from the trunk and is increasingly being used as an ecologically-sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has several applications, particularly in furniture and specialized construction (notably in Manila's Coconut Palace).
Hawaiians hollowed the trunk to form a drum, a container, or even small canoes.
The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a good source of charcoal.
Shells with husks are also used in the Philippines as floor shiners, known as bunot.
Dried half coconut shells are used to buff floors.
The stiff leaflet midribs make cooking skewers, kindling arrows, or bound into bundles, brooms and brushes.
The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, or a medicine for dysentery. A frayed-out piece of root makes a poor man's toothbrush.
Half coconut shells are used in theatre, banged together to create the sound effect of a horse's hoofbeats. They were also used in this way in the Monty Python film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
In fairgrounds, a "coconut shy" is a popular target practice game, and coconuts are commonly given as prizes.
A coconut can be hollowed out and used as a home for a rodent or small bird.
Fresh inner coconut husk can also be rubbed on the lens of snorkling goggles to prevent fogging during use
Dried half coconut shells are used as the bodies of musical instruments, including the Chinese yehu and banhu, and the Vietnamese ? n g o.
Coconut is also commonly used as a herbal remedy in Pakistan to treat bites from rats.
Coconuts can be used as weapons, either by holding them and then hitting the target with them or by throwing them either by hand or with catapulting devices. A simple fragmentary improvised explosive device can be made by drilling a small hole in a coconut, extracting the water and then filling the coconut with gunpowder. A primer is then added, the hole filled and when the coconut bomb explodes it will send scraps of coconut flying everywhere, injuring and possibly killing whatever is nearby the explosion epicenter.[citation needed]
The "branches" (leaf petioles) are whippy (strong and flexible) enough to make a redouted switch, the traditional use of which in tribal justice was for instance revived by referendum among the Gilbertese community on Choiseul (Solomon islands) in 2005 CorPun.
In World War II, Biuki Gasa was the first of two Solomon Islanders to reach the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy and the crew of his PT-109. He would suggest for lack of paper, delivering a message inscribed on a coconut by dugout canoe. This coconut was later kept on president's desk. It is now in the John. F. Kennedy presidential library, and is perhaps one of, if not the most notable coconut in the world today.
Coconut seedlings are popular novelty houseplants.
Cultural aspects
Coconuts are extensively used in Hindu religious rites. Coconuts are usually offered to the gods, and a coconut is smashed on the ground or on some object as part of an initiation or inauguration of building projects, facility, ship, etc.; this act signifies sacrificing ego, that wealth stems from divinity, and if due credit is not given, bad karma is taken on. In Hindu mythology it is referred as Kalpavruksha. In Hindu mythologies it is said that Kalapavruksha gives what is asked for.
The Indonesian tale of Hainuwele tells a story of the introduction of coconuts to Seram.
The people of the state of Kerala in southern India consider Kerala to be the "Land of Coconuts", in the native language the phrase is nalikerathinte nattil.
External links
Coconut Research Center
Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka
Kokonut Pacific Developers of Direct Micro Expelling (DME) technology that enables Islanders to produce pure cold-pressed virgin coconut oil
Coconut Festival
Coconut Time Line
Plant Cultures: botany, history and uses of the coconut
Purdue University crop pages: Cocos nucifera
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Cocos nuciferaRetrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut"
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Coconut - Cocos nucifera L Arecaceaetag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3902006-10-07T18:53:21Z2006-10-07T19:50:24Z Coconut is one of the ten most useful trees in the world, providing food for millions of people, especially in the tropics. At any one time a coconut palm has 12 different crops of nuts on it, from opening...
Coconut is one of the ten most useful trees in the world, providing food for millions of people, especially in the tropics. At any one time a coconut palm has 12 different crops of nuts on it, from opening flower to ripe nut. At the top of the tree is the growing point, a bundle of tightly packed, yellow-white, cabbage-like leaves, which, if damaged, causes entire tree to die, but if tree can be spared, this heart makes a tasty treat, a 'millionaire's salad'. Unopened flowers are protected by sheath, often used to fashion shoes, caps, even a kind of pressed helmet for soldiers. Opened flowers provide a good honey for bees. A clump of unopened flowers may be bound tightly together, bent over and its tip bruised. Soon it begins to 'weep' a steady dripping of sweet juice, up to a gallon per day.
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Uses
Coconut is one of the ten most useful trees in the world, providing food for millions of people, especially in the tropics. At any one time a coconut palm has 12 different crops of nuts on it, from opening flower to ripe nut. At the top of the tree is the growing point, a bundle of tightly packed, yellow-white, cabbage-like leaves, which, if damaged, causes entire tree to die, but if tree can be spared, this heart makes a tasty treat, a 'millionaire's salad'. Unopened flowers are protected by sheath, often used to fashion shoes, caps, even a kind of pressed helmet for soldiers. Opened flowers provide a good honey for bees. A clump of unopened flowers may be bound tightly together, bent over and its tip bruised. Soon it begins to 'weep' a steady dripping of sweet juice, up to a gallon per day. It contains 16-30 mg ascorbic acid/100 g. The cloudy brown liquid is easily boiled down to syrup, called coconut molasses, then crystalized into a righ dark sugar, almost exactly like maple sugar. Sometimes it is mixed with grated coconut for candy. Left standing, it ferments quickly into a beer with alcohol content up to 8%, called 'toddy' in India and Sri Lanka; 'tuba' in Philippines and Mexico; and 'tuwak' in Indonesia. After a few weeks, it becomes a vinegar. 'Arrack' is the product after distilling fermented 'toddy' and is a common spirituous liquor consumed in the East. Nut has a husk, which is a mass of packed fibers called coir, which can be woven into strong twine or rope, and is used for padding mattresses, upholstery and life-preservers. Fiber resistant to sea water and is used for cables and rigging on ships, for making mats, rugs, bags, brooms, brushes, and olive oil filters in Italy and Greece; also used for fires and mosquito smudges. If nut is allowed to germinate, cavity fills with a spongy mass called 'bread' which is eaten raw or toasted in shell over fire. Sprouting seeds may be eaten like celery. Shell is hard and fine-grained, and may be carved into all kinds of objects, as drinking cups, dippers, scoops, smoking pipe bowls, and collecting cups for rubber latex. Charcoal used for cooking fires, air filters, in gas masks, submarines, and cigarette tips. Shells burned as fuel for copra kilns or housefires. Coconut shell flour used in industry as filler in plastics. Coconut water is produced by a 5 month old nut, about 2 cups of crystal clear, cool sweet (invert sugars and sucrose) liquid, so pure and sterile that during World War II, it was used in emergencies instead of sterile glucose solution, and put directly into a patient's veins. Also contains growth substances, minerals, and vitamins. Boiled toddy, known as jaggery, with lime makes a good cement. Nutmeat of immature coconuts is like a custard in flavor and consistency, and is eaten or scraped and squeezed through cloth to yield a 'cream' or 'milk' used on various foods. Cooked with rice to make Panama's famous 'arroz con coco'; also cooked with taro leaves or game, and used in coffee as cream. Dried, desiccated, and shredded it is used in cakes, pies, candies, and in curries and sweets. When nuts are cut open and dried, meat becomes copra, which is processed for oil, rich in glycerine and used to make soaps, shampoos, shaving creams, toothpaste lotions, lubricants, hydraulic fluid, paints, synthetic rubber, plastics, margarine, and in ice cream. In India, the Hindus make a vegetarian butter called 'ghee' from coconut oil; also used in infant formulas. When copra is heated, the clear oil separates out easily, and is made this way for home use in producing countries. Used in lamps. Cake residue used as cattle fodder, as it is rich in proteins and sugar; should not give more than 4-5 lbs/animal/day, as butter from milk will have a tallow flavor. As cake is deficient in calcium, it should be fed together with calcium rich foods. Trunk wood used for building sheds and other semi-permanent buildings. Outer wood is close-grained, hard, and heavy, and when well seasoned, has an attractive dark colored grain adaptable for carving, especially ornamentals under the name of 'porcupine wood'. Coconut logs should not be used for fences, as decayed wood makes favorable breeding places for beetles. Logs are used to make rafts. Sections of stem, after scooping out pith, are used as flumes or gutters for carrying water. Pith of stem contains starch which may be extracted and used as flour. Pitch from top of tree is sometimes pickled in coconut vinegar. Coconut leaves made into thin strips are woven into clothing, furnishings, screens, and walls of temporary buildings. Stiff midribs make cooking skewers, arrows, brooms, brushes, and for fish traps. Leaf fiber used in India to make mats, slippers, and bags. Used to make short-lived torches. Coconut roots provide a dye, a mouthwash, a medicine for dysentery, and frayed out make toothburshes; scorched, used as coffee substitute. Believed to be antiblenorrhagic, antibronchitis, febrifugal, and antigingivitic. Coconut palm is useful as an ornamental; its only drawback being the heavy nuts which may cause injury to man, beast, or rooftop when they hit in falling (Duke, 1972).
Folk Medicine
According to Hartwell (1967-1971) coconuts are used in folk remedies for tumors. Reported to be anthelmintic, antidotal, antiseptic, aperient, aphrodisiac, astringent, bactericidal, depurative, diuretic, hemostat, pediculicide, purgative, refrigerant, stomachic, styptic, suppurative, and vermifuge, coconut, somewhere or other, is a folk remedy for abscesses, alopecia, amenorrhea, asthma, blenorrhagia, bronchitis, bruises, burns, cachexia, calculus, colds, constipation, cough, debility, dropsy, dysentery, dysmenorrhea, earache, erysipelas, fever, flu, gingivitis, gonorrhea, hematemesis, hemoptysis, jaundice, menorrhagia, nausea, phthisis, pregnancy, rash, scabies, scurvy, sorethroat, stomach, swelling, syphylis, toothache, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, venereal diseases, and wounds (Duke and Wain, 1981).
Chemistry
Per 100 g, the kernel is reported to contain 36.3 g H2O 4.5 g protein, 41.6 g fat, 13.0 g total carbohydrate, 3.6 g fiber, 1.0 g ash, 10 mg Ca, 24 mg P, 1.7 mg Fe, and traces of beta-carotene (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976). Per 100 g, the green nut is reported to contain 77-200 calories, 68.0-84.0 g H2O, 1.4- 2.0 g protein, 1.9-17.4 g fat, 4.0-11.7 g total carbohydrate, 0.4-3.7 g fiber, 0.7-0.9 g ash, 11-42 mg Ca, 42-56 mg P, 1.0-1.1 mg Fe, 257 mg K, trace of beta-carotene, 0.4-0.5 mg thiamine, 0.03 mg riboflavin, 0.8 mg niacin, and 6-7 mg ascorbic acid (Food Composition Tables). Coconut oil is one of the least variable among vegetable fats, i.e. 0.2-0.5% caproic-, 5.4-9.5 caprylic-, 4.5-9.7 capric-, 44.1-51.3 lauric-, 13.1-18.5 myristic, 7.5-10.5 palmitic-, 1.0-3.2 stearic-, 0-1.5 arachidic-, 5.0-8.2 oleic-, and 1.0-2.6 linoleic-acids (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976). Following oil extraction from copra, the coconut cake (poonac) contains 10.0-13.3% moisture, 6.0-26.7% oil, 14.3-19.8% protein, 32.8-45.3% carbohydrates, 8.9-12.2% fibers, and 4.0-5.7% ash. The so-called coconut water is 95.5% water, 0.1% protein, <0.1% fat, 0.4% ash, 4.0% carbohydrate. Per 100 g water, there is 105 mg Na, 312 K, 29 Ca, 30 Mg, 0.1 Fe, 0.04 Cu, 37 P, 24 S, and 183 mg choline. Leaves contain 8.45% moisture, 4.282 ash, 0.56% K2O, 0.25 P2O5, 0.28 CaO, and 0.57% MgO.
Description
Palm to 27 m or more tall, bearing crown of large pinnate leaves; trunk stout, 30-45 cm in diameter, straight or slightly curved, rising from a swollen base surrounded by mass of roots; rarely branched, marked with rings of leaf scars; leaves 2-6 m long, pinnatisect, leaflets 0.6-1 m long, narrow, tapering; inflorescence in axil of each leaf as spathe enclosing a spadix 1.3-2 m long, stout, straw or orange colored, simply branched; female flowers numerous, small, sweet-scented, horne towards top of panicle; fruit ovoid, 3-angled, 15-30 cm long, containing single seed; exocarp a thick fibrous, husk, enclosing a hard, bony endocarp or shell. Adhering inside wall of endocarp is testa with thick albuminous endosperm, the coconut meat; embryo below one of the three pores at end of fruit, cavity of endosperm filled in unripe fruit with watery fluid, the coconut water, and only partially filled.when ripe. Fl. and fr. year round in tropics.
Germplasm
Reported from the Indochina-Indonesia and Hindustani centers of origin, coconut has been reported to tolerate high pH, heat, insects, laterites, low pH, poor soil, salt, sand, and slope. Many classifications have been proposed for coconuts, none is wholly satisfactory. Variations are based on height, tall (27 m or so) or dwarf (2 m); color of plant or fruit; size of nut (some palms have very large fruits, others have large numbers of small fruits); shape of nuts, varying from globular to spindel-shaped or with definite triangular sections; thickness of husk or shell; type of inflorescence; and time required to reach maturity. Many botanical varieties and forms have been recognized and named, using some of the characteristics mentioned above. Cultivars have been developed from various areas. Dwarf palms occurring in India are introductions from Malaysia, live about 30-35 years, thrive in rich soils and wet regions, flower and fruit much earlier than tall varieties, and come into bearing by fourth year after planting. However, dwarf varieties are not grown commercially, and only on a limited scale because of their earliness and tender nuts, which yield a fair quantity of coconut water. They are highly susceptible to diseases and are adversely affected by even short periods of drought. Tall coconuts are commonly grown for commercial purposes, 40-90 years, are hardy, and thrive under a variety of soil, climatic, and cultural conditions, begin to flower when about 8-10 years after planting. 2n = 16.
Distribution
Now pantropical, especially along tropical shorelines, where floating coconuts may volunteer, the coconut's origin is shrowded in mysteries, vigorously debated. According to Purseglove (1968-1972), the center of origin of cocoid palms most closely related to coconut is in northwestern South America. At the time of the discovery of the New World, coconuts (as we know them today) were confined to limited areas on the Pacific coast of Central America, and absent from the Atlantic shores of the Americas and Africa. Coconuts drifted as far north as Norway are still capable of germination. The wide distribution of coconut has no doubt been aided by man and marine currents as well.
Ecology
Ranging from Subtropical Dry to Wet through Tropical Very Dry to Wet Forest Life Zones, coconut has been reported from stations with an annual precipitation of 7-42 dm (mean of 35 cases = 20.5), annual temperature of 21-30°C (mean of 35 cases = 25.7°C) with 4-12 consecutive frost free months, each with at least 60 mm rainfall, and pH of 4.3-8.0 (mean of 27 cases = 6.0).
Cultivation
Propagated by seedlings raised from fully mature fruits. Seeds selected from high-yielding stock with desirable traits. Yield of copra is final criterion, based on size and number of nuts per palm. Seednut trees should have straight trunk and even growth, with closely spaced leaf-scars, short fronds, well oriented on the crown, short bunch stalks, and from palms growing under normal rather favorable conditions. Also the inflorescence should bear about 100 female flowers, and the crown should have a large number of fronds and consequently of inflorescences. Seednuts should be medium-sized and nearly spherical in shape; long nuts usually have too much husk in relation to kernel. Because male parent is unknown and because female parent is itself heterozygous, seednuts from high-yielding palms do not necessarily reproduce same performance in progeny; so that character alone has limited value. Records are kept of fruits harvested from each mother palm, such as number of bunches, number of nuts, weight of husked nuts, estimated weight of copra (about one-third weight of husked nuts being considered favorable). After fully mature nuts are picked, and not allowed to fall, they are tested by shaking to listen for water within. Under-ripe, spoiled, those with no water, or with insect or disease damage are discarded. Nuts are planted right away in nursery or stored in a cool, dry, well-ventilated shed until they can be planted. Seeds planted in nursery facilitate selection of best to put in field, as only half will produce a high-yielding palm for copra. Also, watering and insect control is much easier to manage in nursery. Soil should be sandy or light loamy, free from waterlogging, but close to source of water, and away from heavy shade. Nursery beds should be raised about 22 cm, and long, separated by shallow drains to carry away excessive water. In preparation of nursery beds, they should be dug and loosened to a depth of 30 cm. Loosened soil mixed with dried or rotten leaves and ash from burnt fresh coconut husks at a rate of 25 lbs. of husk-ash per 225 sq. ft. Nuts spaced in beds 22 x 30 cm, a hectare of nursery accomodating 100,000 seednuts. Nuts planted horizontally produce better seedlings than those planted vertically. The germinating eye is placed uppermost in a shallow furrow, about 15 cm deep, and soil mounded up around, but not completely covering them, leaving the eye exposed. Soaking nuts in water for 1-2 weeks before planting may benefit germination; longer periods of soaking are progressively disadvantageous. Bright sunlight is best for growing stout sturdy seedlings. Regular watering in nursery is essential in dry weather, amount and frequency depending on local conditions. Mulching sometimes used to preserve moisture and supress weeds. Paddy straw, woven coconut leaves, and just coconut leaves are used; howevers they might encourage termites. Potash fertilizer helps seedling growth, and probably do not need other fertilizers as nut provides most of needed nutrition. About 16 weeks after nut is planted, the shoot appears through the husk, and at about 30 weeks, when 3 seed-leaves have developed, seedlings should be planted out in permanent sites. Rigorous culling of seedlings is essential. All late germinators and very slow growers are discarded. Robust plants, showing normal rapid growth, straight stems, broad comparatively short dark-green leaves with prominent veins, spreading outward and not straight upward, and those free of disease symptoms, are selected for planting out. Best spacing depends upon soil and terrain. Usually 9-10 m on the square is used, planting 70-150 trees/ha; with triangular spacing of 10 m, 115 palms/ha; and for group or bouquet planting, 3-6 palms planted 4-5 m apart. Planting holes of 1 m wide and deep should be dug 1-3 months before seedlings are transplanted. In India and Sri Lanka, 300-400 husks are burned in each hole, providing 4-5 kg ash per hole. This is mixed with topsoil. Two layers of coconut husks are put into bottom of hole before filling with the topsoil mixed ash. Muriate of potash, 1 kg per hole, is better than ash, but increases cost of planting. The earth settles so that it will be 15-30 cm below ground level when seedling is planted. In planting, soil should be well-packed around nut, but should not cover collar of seedling, nor get into leaf axils. As plant develops, trunk may be earthed up, until soil is flush with general ground level. Usually 7-8 month old seedlings are used for transplants. In some instances plants up to 5 years old are used, as they are more resistant to termite damage. If older plants are used, care must be taken not to damage roots, as they are slow to recover. Desirable to transplant in rainy season. In areas with only one rainy season per year, it is simpler to plant nuts in nursery in one rainy season, and transplant them a year later. Young plantation should be fenced to protect plants from damage from cattle, goats, or other wild animals. Entire areas may be fenced in, individual trees, or, as in Sri Lanka and southern India, piles of coconut husks are placed around tree. At end of first year after transplanting, vacancies should be filled with plants of same age held in reserve in nursery. Also any slow-growers, or disease damaged plants should be replaced. During first 3 years, seedling should be watered during drought, an application of ca 16 liters/tree twice a week being recommended. Keep trees clear of weeds, especially climbers. Usually a circle 1-2 m in radius should be weeded with mattock several times a year, the weeds left as mulch. Cover-crops, as Centrosema pubescens, Calopogonium mucunoides, or Pueraria phaseoloides, are used and turned under before dry season. Catch-crops as Cassava (Manihot utilissima), and green gram (Vigna aureus) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), bananas and pineapples, may be used. Sometimes bush crops, in addition or instead of, ground covers are used as green manures, as Tephrosia candida, Crotalaria striata, C. uraramoensis, C. anagyroides, all fast growers. Gliricidia sepium and Erythrina lithosperma may be grown as hedges or live fences, their loppings used as green manure. Usually the cheapest form of fertilizer materials for a given area are used. General fertilizer recommended, used with suitable local modifications, would consist of 230-300 g N, 260-460 g P2O5, and 300-670 g K2O per palm. Application of lime is not generally recommended. There is no evidence that salt is beneficial as is sometimes claimed. They can withstand a degree of salinity, about 0.6%, which is lethal to many other crops. Palms seem to need some magnesium, but are extremely sensitive to an excess. Cultivation depends on soil type, slope of land, and rainfall distribution; often disk-harrowing at end of monsoon rains to control weeds is all that is necessary (Reed, 1976).
Harvesting
Trees begin to yield fruit in 5-6 years on good soils, more likely 7-9 years, and reach full bearing in 12-13 years. Fruit set to maturity is 8-10 months; 12 months from setting of female flowers. Nuts must be harvested fully ripe for making copra or desiccated coconut. For coir they are picked about one month short of maturity, so that husks will be green. Coconuts are usually Picked by human climbers, or cut by knives attached to end of long bamboo poles, this being the cheapest method. With pole, a man can pick from 250 palms in a day, by climbing, only 25. In some areas nuts are allowed to fall naturally, and collected regularly. Nuts are husked in field, a good husker handling 2,000 nuts/day. Then nut is split, (up to 10,000 nuts per working day). Copra may be cured by sun-drying, or by kiln-drying, or by a combination of both. Sun-drying requires 6-8 consecutive days of good bright sunshine to dry meat without its spoiling. Drying reduces moisture content from 50% to below 7%. Copra is stored in well-ventilated, dry area. Extraction of oil from copra is one of the oldest seed-crushing industries of the world. Coconut cake is usually retained to feed domestic livestock. When it contains much oil, it is not fed to milk cows, but is used as fertilizer. Desiccated coconut is just the white meat, the brown part is peeled off. It is usually grated, but may be thread or chip. Dried in driers similar to those for tea. Good desiccated coconut should be white in color, crisp, with a fresh nutty flavor, and should contain less than 20% moisture and 68-72% oil, the extracted oil containing less than 0.1% of free fatty acid, as lauric. Parings, about 12-15% of kernels, are dried and pressed for oil yielding about 55%. Used locally for soap-making. The resulting poonac used for feeding draught cattle. Coconut flour is made from desiccated coconut with oil removed, and the residue dried and ground. However, it does not keep well. Coir fiber obtained from slightly green coconut husks by retting in slightly saline water that is changed frequently (requires up to 10 months); then, husks are rinsed with water and fiber separated by beating with wooden mallets. After drying, the fiber is cleaned and graded. Greater part of coir produced in India is spun into yarn, a cottage industry, and then used for rugs and ropes. In Sri Lanka, most coir consists of mechanically separated mattress and bristle fiber. To produce this, husks are soaked or retted for 1-4 weeks, and then crushed between iron rollers before fibers are separated. Bristle fibers are 20-30 cm long; anything shorter is sold as superior mattress fiber. In some areas, dry milling of husks, without retting, is carried on and produces only mattress fiber. The separated pith, called bast or dust, is used as fertilizer since the potash is not leached out. Coconuts may be stored at temperature of 0-1.5°C with relative humidity of 75% or less for 1-2 months. In storage, they are subject to loss in weight, drying up of nut milk and mold. They may be held for 2 weeks at room temperature without serious loss.
Yields and Economics
For copra, an average of 6,000 nuts are required for 1 ton; 1,000 nuts yield 500 lbs. of copra, which yields 250 lbs. of oil. Average yield of copra per ha is 3-4 tons. Under good climatic conditions, a fully productive palm produces 12-16 bunches of coconuts per year, each bunch with 8-10 nuts, or 60-100 nuts/tree. Bunches ripen in about 1 year, and should yield 25 kg or more copra. For coir, 1,000 husks yield anout 80 per year, giving about 25 kg of bristle fiber and 55 kg of mattress fiber. Efficient pressing will yield from 100 kg of copra, approximately 62.5 kg of coconut oil, and 35 kg coconut cake, which contains 7-10% oil. The factor 63% is generally used for converting copra to oil equivalent. Yields of copra as high as 5 MT/ha have been reported, but oil yields of 900-1,350 kg/ha. Pryde and Doty (1981) put the average oil yield at 1,050 kg/ha, Telek and Martin (1981), at 600 kg/ha. World production of coconut oil is more than 2 million tons/year, about half of which moves in international trade. Desiccated coconut produced in countries where palm are grown and the products exported. Sri Lanka, Philippine Islands, Papua, and New Guinea are the largest producers. United States and United Kingdom each import at least 50 million pounds annually. Only about 40% of copra produced is exported, remaining 60% processed into oil in country of origin. United States annually imports 190 million pounds of coconut oil and more than 650 million pounds of copra; some sources state 300,000 tons copra and over 200,000 tons coconut oil annually. Coconut oil ranks third, after soybean and peanut oil, in world production of oils. I predict palm oil (Elaeis) will soon move up.
Energy
The coconut of commerce weighs 0.5-1.0 kg. According to Purseglove, the average number of nuts per hectare varies from 2,500 to 7,500 indicating yield of ca 1,200 to 7,500 kg/ha. On the one hand, 'Jamaica Talls' fruits average 1.7 kg, nuts 0.7 kg, of which 50% is endosper; on the other, 'Malayan Dwarfs' fruits average 1.1 kg, the nut 0.6 kg, yielding 0.2 kg copra (6,000 nuts/ton copra). Average production yields of copra (3-8 nuts per kg copra) range from 200 kg/ha in Polynesia to 1,200 kg/ha in the Philippines, suggesting coconut yields of 1,000 to 8,000 kg/ha. Since about 60% of this constitutes the inedible fruit husk and seed husks, I estimate the chaff factor at 0.6. Coconut oil, cracked at high temperatures will yield nearly 50% motor fuel and diesel fuel. Coconut destructive distillation is reported to yield 11.5% charcoal, 11% fuel gas, 37.5% copra spirit, 12.5% olein distillate, 1% crude acetate, 0.15% glycerol, and 0.85% acetone plus methanol. As of June 15, 1981, coconut oil was $0.275/lb., compared to $0.38 for peanut oil, $1.39 for poppyseed oil, $0.65 for tung oil, $0.33 for linseed oil, $0.265 for cottonseed oil, $0.232 for corn oil, and $0.21 for soybean oil (Chemical Marketing Reporter, June 15, 1981). At $2.00 per gallon, gasoline is roughly $0.25/lb. Quick (1981) tested linseed oil (Iodine number 180) which cokes up fuel injectors in less than 20 hours and rapeseed oil (Iodine number ca 100) which logs into the hundreds of hours before the onset of severe injector coking. Coconut oil (Iodine number 10) should be a very good candidate from this viewpoint. This could be very important in developing tropical countries where diesel fuel is scarce and often more expensive than coconut oil. One Australian patent suggests that distillation of coconuts at 550° gave 11.5% charcoal, 11% fuel gas, and 37.5% copra spirit, 12.5% olein distillate, 12.5% black oil, 1% crude acetic acid, 0.15% glycerol, and 0.85% (acetone + methanol) which natural fermentation takes to 2.7-5.8% ethanol. Of course, you can't have your coconut toddy and eat or drink or burn it too (Duke, 1977b).
Biotic Factors
Coconuts are subject to numerous fungal diseases, bacterial infections, and the most serious virus-like disease, cadang-cadang. Coconut trees are also attacked by numerous nematodes and some insect pests, the most damaging insect being the black beetle or rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), which damages buds, thus reducing nut yield, and breeds in decaying refuse. Diseases and pests of a particular area should be considered and local agent consulted as to how to deal with them. Agriculture Handbook No. 165 (1960) lists the following as affecting this species: Aphelenchoides cocophilus (red ring disease), Cephalosporium lecanii, Diplodia epicocos, Endocalyx melanoxthanus, Endoconidiophora paradoxa (leaf-bitten disease, leaf scorch, stem-bleeding), Gloeosporium sp., Pellicularia koleroga (thread blight), Pestalotia palmarum (gray leaf spot, leaf-break), Phomopsis cocoes (on nuts), Phyllosticta sp. (on leaves), Physalospora fusca (on leaves), P. rhodina (on roots and trunk), Phytopthora palmivora (bud rot, leaf drop, wilt), Pythium sp. (wilt).
Chemical Analysis of Biomass Fuels
Analysing 62 kinds of biomass for heating value, Jenkins and Ebeling (1985) reported a spread of 20.05 to 19.02 MJ/kg, compared to 13.76 for weathered rice straw to 23.28 MJ/kg for prune pits. On a % DM basis, the fiber dust contained 66.58 % volatiles, 3.72 % ash, 29.70 % fixed carbon, 50.29 % C, 5.05 % H, 39.63 % O, 0.45 % N, 0.16 % S, 0.28 % Cl, and undertimed residue.
References
Agriculture Handbook 165. 1960. Index of plant diseases in the United States. USGPO. Washington.
Duke, J.A. 1972. Isthmian ethnobotanical dictionary. Publ. by the author. Harrod & Co., Baltimore.
Duke, J.A. and Wain, K.K. 1981. Medicinal plants of the world. Computer index with more than 85,000 entries. 3 vols.
Hartwell, J.L. 1967-1971. Plants used against cancer. A survey. Lloydia 30-34.
Jenkins, B.M. and Ebeling, J.M. 1985. Thermochemical properties of biomass fuels. Calif. Agric. 39(5/6):14-16.
Pryde, E.H. and Doty, H.O., Jr. 1981. World fats and oils situation. p. 3-14. In: Pryde, E.H., Princen, L.H., and Mukherjee, K.D. (eds.), New sources of fats and oils. AOCS Monograph 9. American Oil Chemists' Society. Champaign, IL.
Purseglove, J.W. 1968-1972. Tropical crops. 4 vols. Longman Group Ltd., London.
Purseglove, J.W. 1972. Tropical crops. Monocotyledons 2. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Quick, G.R. 1981. A summary of some current research in Australia on vegetable oils as candidate fuels for diesel engines. (Abstr.) Seminar II, USDA, Peoria, IL.
Reed, C.F. 1976. Information summaries on 1000 economic plants. Typescripts submitted to the USDA.
Telek, L. and Martin, F.W. 1981. Okra seed: a potential source for oil and protein in the humid lowland tropics. p. 37-53. In: Pryde, E.H., Princen, L.H., and Mukherjee, K.D. (eds.), New sources of fats and oils. AOCS Monograph 9. American Oil Chemists' Society. Champaign, IL.
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Coconut - cocos nucifera L and Attaleatag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3892006-10-07T18:44:56Z2006-10-07T19:51:44Z The coconut is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur....
The coconut is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur.
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Origin: The coconut is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur.
Climatic conditions: The coconut is a tropical plant, and grows in temperatures between 20oC and 25oC, but the best temperature is 27oC. It is usually found growing along the coastline.
Growth Habit: The coconut plant is a beautiful palm which can reach a height of more than 30m. It has a smooth, light grey stem rising from a swollen base tipped by a beautiful green crown of long pinnate leaves with heavy bunches of nuts growing from the leaf axils.
Fruit: The fruit of coconut palm is not a real nut but drupe. The development takes 1 year. The volume of a fruit of tall palm vary between 1 – 4 litres, the average weight of a fruit of a tall palm is about 1.5 kilograms. The fruit has a smooth surface, its colour being either green, yellow or reddish brown, or a shade in between. The shape of the fruit varies from round to void with three sides separated by three ridges almost recognizable.
CULTURAL PRACTISES
Location: Coconuts are planted where the temperature remains warmest, such as the south side of a home, or in a sunny portion of the garden.
Soil: Coconuts are grown on a large variety of lands from coarse sands to clay. Stony soils are not condusive for proper growth.
Soil PH: The pH should be within a range of 4.5 to 6.5. Soils that are not sufficiently acid can be treated with sulfur to achieve the desired level. The plant cannot stand water logging and if there is impervious subsoil, drainage needs to be improved.
Irrigation: The plant is surprisingly drought tolerant, but adequate soil moisture is necessary for good fruit production.
Fertilization: Nitrogen is essential to increase fruit size and total yield, which should be added every four months. Spraying with a urea solution is another way to supply nitrogen. Fruit weight has also been increased by the addition of magnesium. Of the minor elements, iron is the most important, particularly in high pH soils. Foliar sprays of ferrous sulfate may supply iron.
Frost Protection: Coconut plants require a frost-free environment. Frost is lethal to coconuts so .
Pests and diseases: Rats and squirrels are common pests.
Fruit Harvest: Harvesters climb the stems and cut the fruits. The coconuts are then stored in cool temperatures and are ready to be consumed in any form that befits the users.
Health benefits and Economic Importance
Coconut oil is used for cooking.
Desiccated coconut is used in confectionery and bakery industries.
Coconut produces coconut milk
Coconut husks is used as household utensils.
Coconut husks and shell are made into charcoal to be used as fuel.
Sweet Tamarindtag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3882006-10-07T05:23:52Z2006-10-07T05:45:14Z Sweet tamarind is grown mostly in Phetchabun. Sweet Tamarind Fair is thus organised in Phetchabun to celebrate the harvest of this fruit. This day is also called Phetchabun’s Agricultural Day. During the festival, farmers bring their sweet tamarind to...
Sweet tamarind is grown mostly in Phetchabun. Sweet Tamarind Fair is thus organised in Phetchabun to celebrate the harvest of this fruit. This day is also called Phetchabun’s Agricultural Day. During the festival, farmers bring their sweet tamarind to sell at reasonable price at Phetchabun’s provincial athletic field where contests of sweet tamarind and other crops are held. Besides this, there are other agricultural exhibitions and entertainment organised during the event.
Tamarind seedling
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Uses
Packaged tamarind pulpThe fruit pulp is edible and popular. It is used as a spice in both Asian and Latin American cuisines, and is also an important ingredient in Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce. The pulp of a young fruit is very sour and acidic and is most often used as a component of savory dishes. The ripened fruit is sweeter and can be used in desserts and drinks, or as a snack.
In temples especially in Asian countries, the pulp is used to clean brass shrine furniture, removing dulling and the greenish patina that form [1] .
The wood is a bold red color. Due to its density and durability, tamarind heartwood can be used in making furniture and wood flooring. A tamarind switch is sometimes used as an implement for corporal punishment.
Tamarind trees are very common in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. They are used as ornamental trees and to provide shade on the country roads and highways. Monkeys love the ripened tamarind fruit.
The pulp, leaves, and bark also have medical applications. For example, in the Philippines, the leaves have been traditionally used in herbal tea for reducing malaria fever. Due to its medicinal value, tamarind is used as an Ayurvedic Medicine for gastric and/or digestion problems.
Tamarind is a staple in the South Indian diet, where it is used to prepare Kuzambu or Sambhar (spicy lentil soup vegetables and tamarind), a soupy preparation called pulikkuzambu popular in Tamil Nadu, Puliyodarai rice, and various types of chutneys. Tamarind is available in Indian stores worldwide. It is also sold as a candy in Mexico (see for example pulparindo), and in various snack forms in Southeast Asia (dried and salted, dried and candied, as a cold drink). Pad Thai, a dish popular in Thai restaurants in the U.S., uses tamarind as its dominant flavor.
Native Philippine TamarindIn Latin America, especially Mexico, and Latin American immigrant communities in the US, the fruit is wildly popular and is fashioned into many kinds of treat. Many popular Tamarindo concoctions are hard candies and suckers and one of the most popular aguas frescas is flavored with tamarind. Tamarind is a popular food in Mexico and is used in many Mexican candies. Likewise Sino-Peruvian food uses tamarind-based juice for its distinctive sweet flavour. [citations needed]
Metaphorical use
In Mexican slang (especially in Mexico City), the term tamarind also refers to traffic control officers, due to the color of their uniforms.
References and external links
Dassanayake, M. D. & Fosberg, F. R. (Eds.). (1991). A Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. (1879). The Flora of British India, Vol II. London: L. Reeve & Co.
Fruits of Warm Climates: Tamarind
Plant Cultures: History and botany of tamarind
California Rare Fruit Growers: Tamarind Fruit Facts
Refusal Actions by FDA as Recorded in OASIS
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Tamarind - Makham wan - from Thailandtag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3872006-10-07T05:11:32Z2006-10-07T05:46:32Z Thai name: Makham wan Scientific name: Tamarindus indica L. Season: December to March The fruit is, as the name suggests, a sweet variety of a fruit generally associated with an acid taste. After being peeled it is generally eaten...
Thai name: Makham wan
Scientific name: Tamarindus indica L.
Season: December to March
The fruit is, as the name suggests, a sweet variety of a fruit generally associated with an acid taste. After being peeled it is generally eaten fresh, though boiled in water it also makes a refreshing juice. Other, more sour varieties of tamarind are used in various cooked dishes for flavoring.
Tamarind tree
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Sweet Tamarind Fair
Sweet tamarind is grown mostly in Phetchabun. Sweet Tamarind Fair is thus organised in Phetchabun to celebrate the harvest of this fruit. This day is also called Phetchabun’s Agricultural Day. During the festival, farmers bring their sweet tamarind to sell at reasonable price at Phetchabun’s provincial athletic field where contests of sweet tamarind and other crops are held. Besides this, there are other agricultural exhibitions and entertainment organised during the event.
Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind
Definition
Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind includes straight pod sweet tamarinds, which are See Chom Phoo, Khan Dee, Pra Kai Thong, Phak Darp, and Wahn Lon; and curved pod sweet tamarinds, which are See Thong, See Thong Bao, Nam Pheung (honey), Intaphalum, Muen-Jong, and Sang Arthit (sunshine). All of them are planted in Phetchabun.
Specification of Goods
(1) Sweet tamarind strain: includes See Chom Phoo, Khan Dee, Pra Khai Thong, Phak Darp,
Wan Lon, See Thong, See Thong Bao, Nam Phueng (honey), Intaphalum, Muen-Jong, and
Sang Arthit (sunshine).
(2) Kinds of Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind
- Straight pod: See Chom Phoo, Khan Dee, Pra Kai Thong, Phak Darp, and Wahn Lon.
- Curved pod: See Thong, See Thong Bao, Nam Pheung (honey), Intaphalum, Muen-
Jong, and Sang Arthit (sunshine).
(3) Physical Characteristic
- Shape: straight pod or curved pod
- Peel: clean brown
- Flesh: delicate and clean color, moist and sticky flesh with little amount of soft, not hard
strings.
- Flavour: sweet and aroma
Production ProcessSuitable Environment
(1) Soil: rich soil or sandy clay fertilized with organic matters and sufficient nutrient elements
with good drainage system. The soil floor is more than 1 meter depth. Soil conditions should
have medium acid and alkali combination (pH is between 5-7.5)
(2) Amount of rain. Sweet tamarind tree will grow well if there is regular amount of rain during
the period of flowering and pod maturing. The annual average amount of rain should be
1,000 – 1,300 mm.
(3) Temperature should be between 20 – 35 degrees Celsius.
(4) Relative humidity during the period of flowering and pod maturing should be about 50 – 90%,
and during fully ripe should be less than 60%.
Cultivation
Each sweet tamarind tree should be 6 meters x 6 meters apart.
Harvesting
(1) Harvesting period is in November – April of the following year. They collect only the fully ripe
sweet tamarind.
(2) After harvesting, dry sweet tamarind pod in the sun or fumigate with heat.
Translation provided by the EC-ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Co-operation Programme (ECAP II)
(5) Relation between product and geographical location:
The landscape of Phetchabun is like the lower part of the cooking pan. Soil conditions are sandy rich soil, clay, and lateritic pebble soil. The lower part of the soil is yellowish brown, red, and black. The acid and alkali condition is with pH 4.50-8.0. The central part of the province is on the Pa Sak River flowing from the north to the south. The landscape is with mountain range, plateau, highland, and plain areas fertilized with phosphorus and potassium, which are suitable for fruit gardening, especially sweet tamarind. The climate in November – April with low relative humidity is suitable for harvesting the fruits.
History: Phetchabun is the province, where the original sweet tamarind, Muen-Jong, was
cultivated at Lom Kao district for more than 300 years ago. In addition, the province is also the
origin for other several kinds of tamarind, which are named according to the pods of the tamarind
such as See Chom Phoo, and See Thong.
(6) Scope of Geographical Area
Sweet tamarind is grown mostly in Phetchabun, located in lower northern part of Thailand
between 101 eastern longitude degrees and 16 northern latitude degrees. The details are shown
on the map.
(7) Conditions for Registration under Section 15
(1) Develop inspection and monitoring (control) system for the entire process, both at the
manufacturers and provincial levels.
(2) Register agriculturists, who cultivate, distribute and request application for geographical
indications for Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind.
(3) Registered applicants have to compile an operating manual for members requesting to use
Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind Geographical Indication name.
(8) Proof of Origin
(1) Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind must cultivate in the area of Phetchabun province.
(2) Production process must be inspected and monitored, which are to register agriculturists
who cultivate Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind, as well as must have documents to recheck the
process for traceability.]]>
Sweet Tamarind - Tamarindus indica linn. (Leguminosae)tag:www.babasgarden.net,2006://1.3862006-10-07T05:06:55Z2006-10-07T05:10:04Z Thought to have originated from Africa, the sweet tamarind found its way to Arabia and Southeast Asia where it is considered to be a prized delicacy....
Thought to have originated from Africa, the sweet tamarind found its way to Arabia and Southeast Asia where it is considered to be a prized delicacy.]]>
SWEET TAMARIND
(Ma-khaam Waan)
Tamarindus indica Linn. (Leguminosae)
Season: December – March
Geographic area: Grown predominantly in North and Northeast Thailand
Sweet tamarind grows in long pods from huge shady trees. The pods hang from branches like beans. They are green, crunchy and sour when young, while the skin turns brown, hard and brittle when ripe. Inside, the dark-brown flesh is moist and sticky, with string-like fibers covering a row of brown seeds. By nature, tamarind is sweet-and-sour, with the best ones from Phetchabun province renowned for their sweetness. Popular varieties include Si Thong, Kantee, Prakai and Intaphalam.
Sweet tamarind can be eaten fresh, simply by cracking the brittle shell and devouring the flesh off the seeds. Those with a more sour taste are coated with sugar and chili (ma-khaam klook), made into toffee (ma-khaam gaew), or boiled in water to create a refreshing drink.
Thais simply love the three-flavor taste of pickled young (green) sweet tamarind (ma-khaam chae-im). To intensify the flavorful snack, the crunchy flesh is dipped in a sugar-salt-chili mix (prik kap kleua). The principal use of sour tamarind is as the primary souring agent in Thai cooking. Moist wads of tamarind pulp (ma-khaam piak) are sold in markets and melted in water to form tamarind purée or juice (nam ma-khaam piak) that finds use in many Thai dishes. (Wet tamarind is also used in the silver factories of Chiang Mai as a valuable polisher of silver and brass.) Young tamarind leaves and flowers are also sour, used in Thai salads and spicy dips.
Tamarind is rich in vitamins A and C, calcium, phosphorus, iron and niacin. Its acidic nature makes it a mild, natural laxative, while it is said to help purify the blood and soothe coughs.
According to folk belief, the tamarind, a tree with an auspicious Thai name, offers protection against evil. Additionally, the word ‘khaam’, derived from the word ‘kreng kham’, suggests an individual who is held in high esteem and is treated with deep respect and awe.
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Origins and cultivation
A man climbing a tree to harvest coconuts. Behind the tree a young plant is visibleThe origins of this plant are the subject of controversy with some authorities claiming it is native to southeast Asia, while others claim its origin is in northwestern South America. Fossil records from New Zealand indicate that small, coconut-like plants grew there as far back 15 million years ago. Even older fossils have been uncovered in Rajasthan & Maharashtra, India. Regardless of its origin, the coconut has spread across much of the tropics, probably aided in many cases by sea-faring peoples. The fruit is light and buoyant and presumably spread significant distances by marine currents: fruits collected from the sea as far north as Norway have been found to be viable (subsequently germinated under the right conditions). In the Hawaiian Islands, the coconut is regarded as a Polynesian introduction, first brought to the Islands by early Polynesian voyagers from their homelands in the South Pacific.
The coconut palm thrives on sandy soils and is highly tolerant of salinity. It prefers areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall (750 to 2,000 mm annually), which makes colonising shorelines of the tropics relatively straightforward. Coconuts also need high humidity (70–80%+) for optimum growth, which is why they are rarely seen in areas with low humidity (e.g. the Mediterranean), even where temperatures are high enough (regularly above 24°C). They are very hard to establish and grow in dry climates without frequent irrigation. The only two states in the U.S. where coconut palms can be grown and reproduce outdoors without irrigation are Hawaii and Florida. The farthest north a coconut palm has been known to grow outdoors is in Newport Beach, California along the Pacific Coast Highway. In order for coconut palm to survive in Southern California they need sandy soil, minimal water in the winter to prevent root rot and would benefit from root heating coils.
The flowers of the coconut palm are polygamomonoecious, with both male and female flowers in the same inflorescence. Flowering occurs continuously, with female flowers producing seeds. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross-pollinated, although some dwarf varieties are self-pollinating.
The fruit
Maturing Coconuts on the tree
Botanically, a coconut is a simple dry fruit known as a fibrous drupe (not a true nut). The husk (mesocarp) is composed of fibres called coir and there is an inner "stone" (the endocarp). This hard endocarp (the outside of the coconut as sold in the shops of non-tropical countries) has three germination pores that are clearly visible on the outside surface once the husk is removed. It is through one of these that the radicle emerges when the embryo germinates. Adhering to the inside wall of the endocarp is the testa, with a thick albuminous endosperm (the coconut "meat"), the white and fleshy edible part of the seed.
When viewed on end, the endocarp and germination pores resemble the face of a monkey, the Portuguese word for which is macaco, sometimes abbreviated to coco, hence the name of the fruit. The specific name nucifera is Latin for nut bearing.
When the coconut is still green, the endosperm inside is thin and tender, a favourite snack. But the main reason to pick the nut at that stage is to drink its juice; a big nut contains up to one litre of refreshing drink. When the nut has ripened and the outer husk has turned brown, a couple of months later, it will fall from the tree of its own accord. At that time the endosperm has thickened and hardened, while the juice has become somewhat bitter.
Coconut flower.
To open a coconut, remove the outer husk (if not purchased already removed) and pierce two of the three eyes of the fruit (one for the juice to come out of, one to enable air to go in); drain the juice from the fruit. Since coconuts have a naturally-forming fracture point, they can be opened by taking a heavy knife, such as a meat cleaver, and striking the coconut with the flat edge of the knife. Or you can use a flat-bladed screwdriver and a hammer (which is easier, and may be safer than using a cleaver). After inserting the screwdriver slightly, twist it to crack the shell. The coconut should then be turned, and this process repeated until there is a contiguous crack in the shell around the entire fruit. Afterwards, the fruit can be separated at this fracture point. An alternative method is to first drain the juice from the coconut and then place it in an oven at 180 °C for 20 minutes. The heat will crack the shell as well as loosen the flesh, enough so that it will almost fall off.
Coconuts affected by Eriophyid mites.
When the nut is still green the husk is very hard, but green nuts rarely fall, only when they have been attacked by moulds, etc. By the time the nut naturally falls, the husk has become brown, the coir has become dryer and softer, and the nut is less likely to cause damage when it drops. Still, there have been instances of coconuts falling from trees and injuring people, and claims of some fatalities. This was the subject of a paper published in 1984 that won the Ig Nobel Prize in 2001. Falling coconut deaths are often used as a comparison to shark attacks, making the claim that it is more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than by a shark. There is no evidence of people being killed in this manner (column from The Straight Dope). However William Wyatt Gill, an early LMS missionary on Mangaia recorded a story in which Kaiara, the concubine of King Tetui, was killed by a falling, green nut. The offending tree was immediately cut down. This was around 1777, the time of Captain Cook's visit.
In some parts of the world, trained monkeys are used to harvest coconuts. Training schools for monkeys still exist in southern Thailand. Competitions are held each year to discover the fastest harvester.
Uses
All parts of the coconut palm are useful, and the trees have a comparatively high yield (up to 75 fruits per year); it therefore has significant economic value. The name for the coconut palm in Sanskrit is kalpa vriksha, which translates as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life". In Malay, the coconut is known as pokok seribu guna, "the tree of a thousand uses". In the Philippines, the coconut is commonly given the title "Tree of Life".
Uses of the various parts of the palm include:
[Culinary uses
The white, fleshy part of the seed is edible and used fresh or dried in cooking.
The cavity is filled with "coconut water" containing sugars, fibre, proteins, anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals, which provide excellent isotonic electrolyte balance, and an exceptional nutritional food source, which is why it is used as a refreshing drink throughout the humid tropics. It is also used in the making of the gelatinous dessert nata de coco. Mature fruits have significantly less liquid than young immature coconuts. Coconut water is sterile until the coconut is opened (unless the coconut is spoiled).
Sport fruits are also harvested, primarily in the Philippines, where they are known as macapuno.
Coconut milk (which is approximately 17% fat) is made by processing grated coconut with hot water or hot milk which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds from the fibre, and should not be confused with the juice found naturally in young coconuts, called coconut water or coconut juice.
Coconut cream is what rises to the top when coconut milk is refrigerated and left to set.
The leftover fibre from coconut milk production is used as livestock feed.
The sap derived from incising the flower clusters of the coconut is fermented to produce palm wine, also known as "toddy" or, in the Philippines, tuba. The sap can also be reduced by boiling to create a sweet syrup or candy.
Apical buds of adult plants are edible and are known as "palm-cabbage" (though harvest of this kills the tree).
The interior of the growing tip may be harvested as heart-of-palm and is considered a rare delicacy. Harvesting this also kills the tree. Hearts of palm are often eaten in salads; such a salad is sometimes called "millionaire's salad".
Non-culinary uses
Coconut water can be used as an intravenous fluid (see PMID 10674546).
The coir (the fibre from the husk of the coconut) is used in ropes, mats, brushes, caulking boats and as stuffing fibre; it is also used extensively in horticulture for making potting compost.
Copra is the dried meat of the seed which is the source of coconut oil.
The leaves provide materials for baskets and roofing thatch.
Palmwood comes from the trunk and is increasingly being used as an ecologically-sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has several applications, particularly in furniture and specialized construction (notably in Manila's Coconut Palace).
Hawaiians hollowed the trunk to form a drum, a container, or even small canoes.
The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a good source of charcoal.
Shells with husks are also used in the Philippines as floor shiners, known as bunot.
Dried half coconut shells are used to buff floors.
The stiff leaflet midribs make cooking skewers, kindling arrows, or bound into bundles, brooms and brushes.
The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, or a medicine for dysentery. A frayed-out piece of root makes a poor man's toothbrush.
Half coconut shells are used in theatre, banged together to create the sound effect of a horse's hoofbeats. They were also used in this way in the Monty Python film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
In fairgrounds, a "coconut shy" is a popular target practice game, and coconuts are commonly given as prizes.
A coconut can be hollowed out and used as a home for a rodent or small bird.
Fresh inner coconut husk can also be rubbed on the lens of snorkling goggles to prevent fogging during use
Dried half coconut shells are used as the bodies of musical instruments, including the Chinese yehu and banhu, and the Vietnamese ? n g o.
Coconut is also commonly used as a herbal remedy in Pakistan to treat bites from rats.
Coconuts can be used as weapons, either by holding them and then hitting the target with them or by throwing them either by hand or with catapulting devices. A simple fragmentary improvised explosive device can be made by drilling a small hole in a coconut, extracting the water and then filling the coconut with gunpowder. A primer is then added, the hole filled and when the coconut bomb explodes it will send scraps of coconut flying everywhere, injuring and possibly killing whatever is nearby the explosion epicenter.[citation needed]
The "branches" (leaf petioles) are whippy (strong and flexible) enough to make a redouted switch, the traditional use of which in tribal justice was for instance revived by referendum among the Gilbertese community on Choiseul (Solomon islands) in 2005 CorPun.
In World War II, Biuki Gasa was the first of two Solomon Islanders to reach the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy and the crew of his PT-109. He would suggest for lack of paper, delivering a message inscribed on a coconut by dugout canoe. This coconut was later kept on president's desk. It is now in the John. F. Kennedy presidential library, and is perhaps one of, if not the most notable coconut in the world today.
Coconut seedlings are popular novelty houseplants.
Cultural aspects
Coconuts are extensively used in Hindu religious rites. Coconuts are usually offered to the gods, and a coconut is smashed on the ground or on some object as part of an initiation or inauguration of building projects, facility, ship, etc.; this act signifies sacrificing ego, that wealth stems from divinity, and if due credit is not given, bad karma is taken on. In Hindu mythology it is referred as Kalpavruksha. In Hindu mythologies it is said that Kalapavruksha gives what is asked for.
The Indonesian tale of Hainuwele tells a story of the introduction of coconuts to Seram.
The people of the state of Kerala in southern India consider Kerala to be the "Land of Coconuts", in the native language the phrase is nalikerathinte nattil.
External links
Coconut Research Center
Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka
Kokonut Pacific Developers of Direct Micro Expelling (DME) technology that enables Islanders to produce pure cold-pressed virgin coconut oil
Coconut Festival
Coconut Time Line
Plant Cultures: botany, history and uses of the coconut
Purdue University crop pages: Cocos nucifera
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Cocos nuciferaRetrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut"
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Uses
Coconut is one of the ten most useful trees in the world, providing food for millions of people, especially in the tropics. At any one time a coconut palm has 12 different crops of nuts on it, from opening flower to ripe nut. At the top of the tree is the growing point, a bundle of tightly packed, yellow-white, cabbage-like leaves, which, if damaged, causes entire tree to die, but if tree can be spared, this heart makes a tasty treat, a 'millionaire's salad'. Unopened flowers are protected by sheath, often used to fashion shoes, caps, even a kind of pressed helmet for soldiers. Opened flowers provide a good honey for bees. A clump of unopened flowers may be bound tightly together, bent over and its tip bruised. Soon it begins to 'weep' a steady dripping of sweet juice, up to a gallon per day. It contains 16-30 mg ascorbic acid/100 g. The cloudy brown liquid is easily boiled down to syrup, called coconut molasses, then crystalized into a righ dark sugar, almost exactly like maple sugar. Sometimes it is mixed with grated coconut for candy. Left standing, it ferments quickly into a beer with alcohol content up to 8%, called 'toddy' in India and Sri Lanka; 'tuba' in Philippines and Mexico; and 'tuwak' in Indonesia. After a few weeks, it becomes a vinegar. 'Arrack' is the product after distilling fermented 'toddy' and is a common spirituous liquor consumed in the East. Nut has a husk, which is a mass of packed fibers called coir, which can be woven into strong twine or rope, and is used for padding mattresses, upholstery and life-preservers. Fiber resistant to sea water and is used for cables and rigging on ships, for making mats, rugs, bags, brooms, brushes, and olive oil filters in Italy and Greece; also used for fires and mosquito smudges. If nut is allowed to germinate, cavity fills with a spongy mass called 'bread' which is eaten raw or toasted in shell over fire. Sprouting seeds may be eaten like celery. Shell is hard and fine-grained, and may be carved into all kinds of objects, as drinking cups, dippers, scoops, smoking pipe bowls, and collecting cups for rubber latex. Charcoal used for cooking fires, air filters, in gas masks, submarines, and cigarette tips. Shells burned as fuel for copra kilns or housefires. Coconut shell flour used in industry as filler in plastics. Coconut water is produced by a 5 month old nut, about 2 cups of crystal clear, cool sweet (invert sugars and sucrose) liquid, so pure and sterile that during World War II, it was used in emergencies instead of sterile glucose solution, and put directly into a patient's veins. Also contains growth substances, minerals, and vitamins. Boiled toddy, known as jaggery, with lime makes a good cement. Nutmeat of immature coconuts is like a custard in flavor and consistency, and is eaten or scraped and squeezed through cloth to yield a 'cream' or 'milk' used on various foods. Cooked with rice to make Panama's famous 'arroz con coco'; also cooked with taro leaves or game, and used in coffee as cream. Dried, desiccated, and shredded it is used in cakes, pies, candies, and in curries and sweets. When nuts are cut open and dried, meat becomes copra, which is processed for oil, rich in glycerine and used to make soaps, shampoos, shaving creams, toothpaste lotions, lubricants, hydraulic fluid, paints, synthetic rubber, plastics, margarine, and in ice cream. In India, the Hindus make a vegetarian butter called 'ghee' from coconut oil; also used in infant formulas. When copra is heated, the clear oil separates out easily, and is made this way for home use in producing countries. Used in lamps. Cake residue used as cattle fodder, as it is rich in proteins and sugar; should not give more than 4-5 lbs/animal/day, as butter from milk will have a tallow flavor. As cake is deficient in calcium, it should be fed together with calcium rich foods. Trunk wood used for building sheds and other semi-permanent buildings. Outer wood is close-grained, hard, and heavy, and when well seasoned, has an attractive dark colored grain adaptable for carving, especially ornamentals under the name of 'porcupine wood'. Coconut logs should not be used for fences, as decayed wood makes favorable breeding places for beetles. Logs are used to make rafts. Sections of stem, after scooping out pith, are used as flumes or gutters for carrying water. Pith of stem contains starch which may be extracted and used as flour. Pitch from top of tree is sometimes pickled in coconut vinegar. Coconut leaves made into thin strips are woven into clothing, furnishings, screens, and walls of temporary buildings. Stiff midribs make cooking skewers, arrows, brooms, brushes, and for fish traps. Leaf fiber used in India to make mats, slippers, and bags. Used to make short-lived torches. Coconut roots provide a dye, a mouthwash, a medicine for dysentery, and frayed out make toothburshes; scorched, used as coffee substitute. Believed to be antiblenorrhagic, antibronchitis, febrifugal, and antigingivitic. Coconut palm is useful as an ornamental; its only drawback being the heavy nuts which may cause injury to man, beast, or rooftop when they hit in falling (Duke, 1972).
Folk Medicine
According to Hartwell (1967-1971) coconuts are used in folk remedies for tumors. Reported to be anthelmintic, antidotal, antiseptic, aperient, aphrodisiac, astringent, bactericidal, depurative, diuretic, hemostat, pediculicide, purgative, refrigerant, stomachic, styptic, suppurative, and vermifuge, coconut, somewhere or other, is a folk remedy for abscesses, alopecia, amenorrhea, asthma, blenorrhagia, bronchitis, bruises, burns, cachexia, calculus, colds, constipation, cough, debility, dropsy, dysentery, dysmenorrhea, earache, erysipelas, fever, flu, gingivitis, gonorrhea, hematemesis, hemoptysis, jaundice, menorrhagia, nausea, phthisis, pregnancy, rash, scabies, scurvy, sorethroat, stomach, swelling, syphylis, toothache, tuberculosis, tumors, typhoid, venereal diseases, and wounds (Duke and Wain, 1981).
Chemistry
Per 100 g, the kernel is reported to contain 36.3 g H2O 4.5 g protein, 41.6 g fat, 13.0 g total carbohydrate, 3.6 g fiber, 1.0 g ash, 10 mg Ca, 24 mg P, 1.7 mg Fe, and traces of beta-carotene (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976). Per 100 g, the green nut is reported to contain 77-200 calories, 68.0-84.0 g H2O, 1.4- 2.0 g protein, 1.9-17.4 g fat, 4.0-11.7 g total carbohydrate, 0.4-3.7 g fiber, 0.7-0.9 g ash, 11-42 mg Ca, 42-56 mg P, 1.0-1.1 mg Fe, 257 mg K, trace of beta-carotene, 0.4-0.5 mg thiamine, 0.03 mg riboflavin, 0.8 mg niacin, and 6-7 mg ascorbic acid (Food Composition Tables). Coconut oil is one of the least variable among vegetable fats, i.e. 0.2-0.5% caproic-, 5.4-9.5 caprylic-, 4.5-9.7 capric-, 44.1-51.3 lauric-, 13.1-18.5 myristic, 7.5-10.5 palmitic-, 1.0-3.2 stearic-, 0-1.5 arachidic-, 5.0-8.2 oleic-, and 1.0-2.6 linoleic-acids (C.S.I.R., 1948-1976). Following oil extraction from copra, the coconut cake (poonac) contains 10.0-13.3% moisture, 6.0-26.7% oil, 14.3-19.8% protein, 32.8-45.3% carbohydrates, 8.9-12.2% fibers, and 4.0-5.7% ash. The so-called coconut water is 95.5% water, 0.1% protein, <0.1% fat, 0.4% ash, 4.0% carbohydrate. Per 100 g water, there is 105 mg Na, 312 K, 29 Ca, 30 Mg, 0.1 Fe, 0.04 Cu, 37 P, 24 S, and 183 mg choline. Leaves contain 8.45% moisture, 4.282 ash, 0.56% K2O, 0.25 P2O5, 0.28 CaO, and 0.57% MgO.
Description
Palm to 27 m or more tall, bearing crown of large pinnate leaves; trunk stout, 30-45 cm in diameter, straight or slightly curved, rising from a swollen base surrounded by mass of roots; rarely branched, marked with rings of leaf scars; leaves 2-6 m long, pinnatisect, leaflets 0.6-1 m long, narrow, tapering; inflorescence in axil of each leaf as spathe enclosing a spadix 1.3-2 m long, stout, straw or orange colored, simply branched; female flowers numerous, small, sweet-scented, horne towards top of panicle; fruit ovoid, 3-angled, 15-30 cm long, containing single seed; exocarp a thick fibrous, husk, enclosing a hard, bony endocarp or shell. Adhering inside wall of endocarp is testa with thick albuminous endosperm, the coconut meat; embryo below one of the three pores at end of fruit, cavity of endosperm filled in unripe fruit with watery fluid, the coconut water, and only partially filled.when ripe. Fl. and fr. year round in tropics.
Germplasm
Reported from the Indochina-Indonesia and Hindustani centers of origin, coconut has been reported to tolerate high pH, heat, insects, laterites, low pH, poor soil, salt, sand, and slope. Many classifications have been proposed for coconuts, none is wholly satisfactory. Variations are based on height, tall (27 m or so) or dwarf (2 m); color of plant or fruit; size of nut (some palms have very large fruits, others have large numbers of small fruits); shape of nuts, varying from globular to spindel-shaped or with definite triangular sections; thickness of husk or shell; type of inflorescence; and time required to reach maturity. Many botanical varieties and forms have been recognized and named, using some of the characteristics mentioned above. Cultivars have been developed from various areas. Dwarf palms occurring in India are introductions from Malaysia, live about 30-35 years, thrive in rich soils and wet regions, flower and fruit much earlier than tall varieties, and come into bearing by fourth year after planting. However, dwarf varieties are not grown commercially, and only on a limited scale because of their earliness and tender nuts, which yield a fair quantity of coconut water. They are highly susceptible to diseases and are adversely affected by even short periods of drought. Tall coconuts are commonly grown for commercial purposes, 40-90 years, are hardy, and thrive under a variety of soil, climatic, and cultural conditions, begin to flower when about 8-10 years after planting. 2n = 16.
Distribution
Now pantropical, especially along tropical shorelines, where floating coconuts may volunteer, the coconut's origin is shrowded in mysteries, vigorously debated. According to Purseglove (1968-1972), the center of origin of cocoid palms most closely related to coconut is in northwestern South America. At the time of the discovery of the New World, coconuts (as we know them today) were confined to limited areas on the Pacific coast of Central America, and absent from the Atlantic shores of the Americas and Africa. Coconuts drifted as far north as Norway are still capable of germination. The wide distribution of coconut has no doubt been aided by man and marine currents as well.
Ecology
Ranging from Subtropical Dry to Wet through Tropical Very Dry to Wet Forest Life Zones, coconut has been reported from stations with an annual precipitation of 7-42 dm (mean of 35 cases = 20.5), annual temperature of 21-30°C (mean of 35 cases = 25.7°C) with 4-12 consecutive frost free months, each with at least 60 mm rainfall, and pH of 4.3-8.0 (mean of 27 cases = 6.0).
Cultivation
Propagated by seedlings raised from fully mature fruits. Seeds selected from high-yielding stock with desirable traits. Yield of copra is final criterion, based on size and number of nuts per palm. Seednut trees should have straight trunk and even growth, with closely spaced leaf-scars, short fronds, well oriented on the crown, short bunch stalks, and from palms growing under normal rather favorable conditions. Also the inflorescence should bear about 100 female flowers, and the crown should have a large number of fronds and consequently of inflorescences. Seednuts should be medium-sized and nearly spherical in shape; long nuts usually have too much husk in relation to kernel. Because male parent is unknown and because female parent is itself heterozygous, seednuts from high-yielding palms do not necessarily reproduce same performance in progeny; so that character alone has limited value. Records are kept of fruits harvested from each mother palm, such as number of bunches, number of nuts, weight of husked nuts, estimated weight of copra (about one-third weight of husked nuts being considered favorable). After fully mature nuts are picked, and not allowed to fall, they are tested by shaking to listen for water within. Under-ripe, spoiled, those with no water, or with insect or disease damage are discarded. Nuts are planted right away in nursery or stored in a cool, dry, well-ventilated shed until they can be planted. Seeds planted in nursery facilitate selection of best to put in field, as only half will produce a high-yielding palm for copra. Also, watering and insect control is much easier to manage in nursery. Soil should be sandy or light loamy, free from waterlogging, but close to source of water, and away from heavy shade. Nursery beds should be raised about 22 cm, and long, separated by shallow drains to carry away excessive water. In preparation of nursery beds, they should be dug and loosened to a depth of 30 cm. Loosened soil mixed with dried or rotten leaves and ash from burnt fresh coconut husks at a rate of 25 lbs. of husk-ash per 225 sq. ft. Nuts spaced in beds 22 x 30 cm, a hectare of nursery accomodating 100,000 seednuts. Nuts planted horizontally produce better seedlings than those planted vertically. The germinating eye is placed uppermost in a shallow furrow, about 15 cm deep, and soil mounded up around, but not completely covering them, leaving the eye exposed. Soaking nuts in water for 1-2 weeks before planting may benefit germination; longer periods of soaking are progressively disadvantageous. Bright sunlight is best for growing stout sturdy seedlings. Regular watering in nursery is essential in dry weather, amount and frequency depending on local conditions. Mulching sometimes used to preserve moisture and supress weeds. Paddy straw, woven coconut leaves, and just coconut leaves are used; howevers they might encourage termites. Potash fertilizer helps seedling growth, and probably do not need other fertilizers as nut provides most of needed nutrition. About 16 weeks after nut is planted, the shoot appears through the husk, and at about 30 weeks, when 3 seed-leaves have developed, seedlings should be planted out in permanent sites. Rigorous culling of seedlings is essential. All late germinators and very slow growers are discarded. Robust plants, showing normal rapid growth, straight stems, broad comparatively short dark-green leaves with prominent veins, spreading outward and not straight upward, and those free of disease symptoms, are selected for planting out. Best spacing depends upon soil and terrain. Usually 9-10 m on the square is used, planting 70-150 trees/ha; with triangular spacing of 10 m, 115 palms/ha; and for group or bouquet planting, 3-6 palms planted 4-5 m apart. Planting holes of 1 m wide and deep should be dug 1-3 months before seedlings are transplanted. In India and Sri Lanka, 300-400 husks are burned in each hole, providing 4-5 kg ash per hole. This is mixed with topsoil. Two layers of coconut husks are put into bottom of hole before filling with the topsoil mixed ash. Muriate of potash, 1 kg per hole, is better than ash, but increases cost of planting. The earth settles so that it will be 15-30 cm below ground level when seedling is planted. In planting, soil should be well-packed around nut, but should not cover collar of seedling, nor get into leaf axils. As plant develops, trunk may be earthed up, until soil is flush with general ground level. Usually 7-8 month old seedlings are used for transplants. In some instances plants up to 5 years old are used, as they are more resistant to termite damage. If older plants are used, care must be taken not to damage roots, as they are slow to recover. Desirable to transplant in rainy season. In areas with only one rainy season per year, it is simpler to plant nuts in nursery in one rainy season, and transplant them a year later. Young plantation should be fenced to protect plants from damage from cattle, goats, or other wild animals. Entire areas may be fenced in, individual trees, or, as in Sri Lanka and southern India, piles of coconut husks are placed around tree. At end of first year after transplanting, vacancies should be filled with plants of same age held in reserve in nursery. Also any slow-growers, or disease damaged plants should be replaced. During first 3 years, seedling should be watered during drought, an application of ca 16 liters/tree twice a week being recommended. Keep trees clear of weeds, especially climbers. Usually a circle 1-2 m in radius should be weeded with mattock several times a year, the weeds left as mulch. Cover-crops, as Centrosema pubescens, Calopogonium mucunoides, or Pueraria phaseoloides, are used and turned under before dry season. Catch-crops as Cassava (Manihot utilissima), and green gram (Vigna aureus) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), bananas and pineapples, may be used. Sometimes bush crops, in addition or instead of, ground covers are used as green manures, as Tephrosia candida, Crotalaria striata, C. uraramoensis, C. anagyroides, all fast growers. Gliricidia sepium and Erythrina lithosperma may be grown as hedges or live fences, their loppings used as green manure. Usually the cheapest form of fertilizer materials for a given area are used. General fertilizer recommended, used with suitable local modifications, would consist of 230-300 g N, 260-460 g P2O5, and 300-670 g K2O per palm. Application of lime is not generally recommended. There is no evidence that salt is beneficial as is sometimes claimed. They can withstand a degree of salinity, about 0.6%, which is lethal to many other crops. Palms seem to need some magnesium, but are extremely sensitive to an excess. Cultivation depends on soil type, slope of land, and rainfall distribution; often disk-harrowing at end of monsoon rains to control weeds is all that is necessary (Reed, 1976).
Harvesting
Trees begin to yield fruit in 5-6 years on good soils, more likely 7-9 years, and reach full bearing in 12-13 years. Fruit set to maturity is 8-10 months; 12 months from setting of female flowers. Nuts must be harvested fully ripe for making copra or desiccated coconut. For coir they are picked about one month short of maturity, so that husks will be green. Coconuts are usually Picked by human climbers, or cut by knives attached to end of long bamboo poles, this being the cheapest method. With pole, a man can pick from 250 palms in a day, by climbing, only 25. In some areas nuts are allowed to fall naturally, and collected regularly. Nuts are husked in field, a good husker handling 2,000 nuts/day. Then nut is split, (up to 10,000 nuts per working day). Copra may be cured by sun-drying, or by kiln-drying, or by a combination of both. Sun-drying requires 6-8 consecutive days of good bright sunshine to dry meat without its spoiling. Drying reduces moisture content from 50% to below 7%. Copra is stored in well-ventilated, dry area. Extraction of oil from copra is one of the oldest seed-crushing industries of the world. Coconut cake is usually retained to feed domestic livestock. When it contains much oil, it is not fed to milk cows, but is used as fertilizer. Desiccated coconut is just the white meat, the brown part is peeled off. It is usually grated, but may be thread or chip. Dried in driers similar to those for tea. Good desiccated coconut should be white in color, crisp, with a fresh nutty flavor, and should contain less than 20% moisture and 68-72% oil, the extracted oil containing less than 0.1% of free fatty acid, as lauric. Parings, about 12-15% of kernels, are dried and pressed for oil yielding about 55%. Used locally for soap-making. The resulting poonac used for feeding draught cattle. Coconut flour is made from desiccated coconut with oil removed, and the residue dried and ground. However, it does not keep well. Coir fiber obtained from slightly green coconut husks by retting in slightly saline water that is changed frequently (requires up to 10 months); then, husks are rinsed with water and fiber separated by beating with wooden mallets. After drying, the fiber is cleaned and graded. Greater part of coir produced in India is spun into yarn, a cottage industry, and then used for rugs and ropes. In Sri Lanka, most coir consists of mechanically separated mattress and bristle fiber. To produce this, husks are soaked or retted for 1-4 weeks, and then crushed between iron rollers before fibers are separated. Bristle fibers are 20-30 cm long; anything shorter is sold as superior mattress fiber. In some areas, dry milling of husks, without retting, is carried on and produces only mattress fiber. The separated pith, called bast or dust, is used as fertilizer since the potash is not leached out. Coconuts may be stored at temperature of 0-1.5°C with relative humidity of 75% or less for 1-2 months. In storage, they are subject to loss in weight, drying up of nut milk and mold. They may be held for 2 weeks at room temperature without serious loss.
Yields and Economics
For copra, an average of 6,000 nuts are required for 1 ton; 1,000 nuts yield 500 lbs. of copra, which yields 250 lbs. of oil. Average yield of copra per ha is 3-4 tons. Under good climatic conditions, a fully productive palm produces 12-16 bunches of coconuts per year, each bunch with 8-10 nuts, or 60-100 nuts/tree. Bunches ripen in about 1 year, and should yield 25 kg or more copra. For coir, 1,000 husks yield anout 80 per year, giving about 25 kg of bristle fiber and 55 kg of mattress fiber. Efficient pressing will yield from 100 kg of copra, approximately 62.5 kg of coconut oil, and 35 kg coconut cake, which contains 7-10% oil. The factor 63% is generally used for converting copra to oil equivalent. Yields of copra as high as 5 MT/ha have been reported, but oil yields of 900-1,350 kg/ha. Pryde and Doty (1981) put the average oil yield at 1,050 kg/ha, Telek and Martin (1981), at 600 kg/ha. World production of coconut oil is more than 2 million tons/year, about half of which moves in international trade. Desiccated coconut produced in countries where palm are grown and the products exported. Sri Lanka, Philippine Islands, Papua, and New Guinea are the largest producers. United States and United Kingdom each import at least 50 million pounds annually. Only about 40% of copra produced is exported, remaining 60% processed into oil in country of origin. United States annually imports 190 million pounds of coconut oil and more than 650 million pounds of copra; some sources state 300,000 tons copra and over 200,000 tons coconut oil annually. Coconut oil ranks third, after soybean and peanut oil, in world production of oils. I predict palm oil (Elaeis) will soon move up.
Energy
The coconut of commerce weighs 0.5-1.0 kg. According to Purseglove, the average number of nuts per hectare varies from 2,500 to 7,500 indicating yield of ca 1,200 to 7,500 kg/ha. On the one hand, 'Jamaica Talls' fruits average 1.7 kg, nuts 0.7 kg, of which 50% is endosper; on the other, 'Malayan Dwarfs' fruits average 1.1 kg, the nut 0.6 kg, yielding 0.2 kg copra (6,000 nuts/ton copra). Average production yields of copra (3-8 nuts per kg copra) range from 200 kg/ha in Polynesia to 1,200 kg/ha in the Philippines, suggesting coconut yields of 1,000 to 8,000 kg/ha. Since about 60% of this constitutes the inedible fruit husk and seed husks, I estimate the chaff factor at 0.6. Coconut oil, cracked at high temperatures will yield nearly 50% motor fuel and diesel fuel. Coconut destructive distillation is reported to yield 11.5% charcoal, 11% fuel gas, 37.5% copra spirit, 12.5% olein distillate, 1% crude acetate, 0.15% glycerol, and 0.85% acetone plus methanol. As of June 15, 1981, coconut oil was $0.275/lb., compared to $0.38 for peanut oil, $1.39 for poppyseed oil, $0.65 for tung oil, $0.33 for linseed oil, $0.265 for cottonseed oil, $0.232 for corn oil, and $0.21 for soybean oil (Chemical Marketing Reporter, June 15, 1981). At $2.00 per gallon, gasoline is roughly $0.25/lb. Quick (1981) tested linseed oil (Iodine number 180) which cokes up fuel injectors in less than 20 hours and rapeseed oil (Iodine number ca 100) which logs into the hundreds of hours before the onset of severe injector coking. Coconut oil (Iodine number 10) should be a very good candidate from this viewpoint. This could be very important in developing tropical countries where diesel fuel is scarce and often more expensive than coconut oil. One Australian patent suggests that distillation of coconuts at 550° gave 11.5% charcoal, 11% fuel gas, and 37.5% copra spirit, 12.5% olein distillate, 12.5% black oil, 1% crude acetic acid, 0.15% glycerol, and 0.85% (acetone + methanol) which natural fermentation takes to 2.7-5.8% ethanol. Of course, you can't have your coconut toddy and eat or drink or burn it too (Duke, 1977b).
Biotic Factors
Coconuts are subject to numerous fungal diseases, bacterial infections, and the most serious virus-like disease, cadang-cadang. Coconut trees are also attacked by numerous nematodes and some insect pests, the most damaging insect being the black beetle or rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), which damages buds, thus reducing nut yield, and breeds in decaying refuse. Diseases and pests of a particular area should be considered and local agent consulted as to how to deal with them. Agriculture Handbook No. 165 (1960) lists the following as affecting this species: Aphelenchoides cocophilus (red ring disease), Cephalosporium lecanii, Diplodia epicocos, Endocalyx melanoxthanus, Endoconidiophora paradoxa (leaf-bitten disease, leaf scorch, stem-bleeding), Gloeosporium sp., Pellicularia koleroga (thread blight), Pestalotia palmarum (gray leaf spot, leaf-break), Phomopsis cocoes (on nuts), Phyllosticta sp. (on leaves), Physalospora fusca (on leaves), P. rhodina (on roots and trunk), Phytopthora palmivora (bud rot, leaf drop, wilt), Pythium sp. (wilt).
Chemical Analysis of Biomass Fuels
Analysing 62 kinds of biomass for heating value, Jenkins and Ebeling (1985) reported a spread of 20.05 to 19.02 MJ/kg, compared to 13.76 for weathered rice straw to 23.28 MJ/kg for prune pits. On a % DM basis, the fiber dust contained 66.58 % volatiles, 3.72 % ash, 29.70 % fixed carbon, 50.29 % C, 5.05 % H, 39.63 % O, 0.45 % N, 0.16 % S, 0.28 % Cl, and undertimed residue.
References
Agriculture Handbook 165. 1960. Index of plant diseases in the United States. USGPO. Washington.
Duke, J.A. 1972. Isthmian ethnobotanical dictionary. Publ. by the author. Harrod & Co., Baltimore.
Duke, J.A. and Wain, K.K. 1981. Medicinal plants of the world. Computer index with more than 85,000 entries. 3 vols.
Hartwell, J.L. 1967-1971. Plants used against cancer. A survey. Lloydia 30-34.
Jenkins, B.M. and Ebeling, J.M. 1985. Thermochemical properties of biomass fuels. Calif. Agric. 39(5/6):14-16.
Pryde, E.H. and Doty, H.O., Jr. 1981. World fats and oils situation. p. 3-14. In: Pryde, E.H., Princen, L.H., and Mukherjee, K.D. (eds.), New sources of fats and oils. AOCS Monograph 9. American Oil Chemists' Society. Champaign, IL.
Purseglove, J.W. 1968-1972. Tropical crops. 4 vols. Longman Group Ltd., London.
Purseglove, J.W. 1972. Tropical crops. Monocotyledons 2. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Quick, G.R. 1981. A summary of some current research in Australia on vegetable oils as candidate fuels for diesel engines. (Abstr.) Seminar II, USDA, Peoria, IL.
Reed, C.F. 1976. Information summaries on 1000 economic plants. Typescripts submitted to the USDA.
Telek, L. and Martin, F.W. 1981. Okra seed: a potential source for oil and protein in the humid lowland tropics. p. 37-53. In: Pryde, E.H., Princen, L.H., and Mukherjee, K.D. (eds.), New sources of fats and oils. AOCS Monograph 9. American Oil Chemists' Society. Champaign, IL.
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Origin: The coconut is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur.
Climatic conditions: The coconut is a tropical plant, and grows in temperatures between 20oC and 25oC, but the best temperature is 27oC. It is usually found growing along the coastline.
Growth Habit: The coconut plant is a beautiful palm which can reach a height of more than 30m. It has a smooth, light grey stem rising from a swollen base tipped by a beautiful green crown of long pinnate leaves with heavy bunches of nuts growing from the leaf axils.
Fruit: The fruit of coconut palm is not a real nut but drupe. The development takes 1 year. The volume of a fruit of tall palm vary between 1 – 4 litres, the average weight of a fruit of a tall palm is about 1.5 kilograms. The fruit has a smooth surface, its colour being either green, yellow or reddish brown, or a shade in between. The shape of the fruit varies from round to void with three sides separated by three ridges almost recognizable.
CULTURAL PRACTISES
Location: Coconuts are planted where the temperature remains warmest, such as the south side of a home, or in a sunny portion of the garden.
Soil: Coconuts are grown on a large variety of lands from coarse sands to clay. Stony soils are not condusive for proper growth.
Soil PH: The pH should be within a range of 4.5 to 6.5. Soils that are not sufficiently acid can be treated with sulfur to achieve the desired level. The plant cannot stand water logging and if there is impervious subsoil, drainage needs to be improved.
Irrigation: The plant is surprisingly drought tolerant, but adequate soil moisture is necessary for good fruit production.
Fertilization: Nitrogen is essential to increase fruit size and total yield, which should be added every four months. Spraying with a urea solution is another way to supply nitrogen. Fruit weight has also been increased by the addition of magnesium. Of the minor elements, iron is the most important, particularly in high pH soils. Foliar sprays of ferrous sulfate may supply iron.
Frost Protection: Coconut plants require a frost-free environment. Frost is lethal to coconuts so .
Pests and diseases: Rats and squirrels are common pests.
Fruit Harvest: Harvesters climb the stems and cut the fruits. The coconuts are then stored in cool temperatures and are ready to be consumed in any form that befits the users.
Health benefits and Economic Importance
Coconut oil is used for cooking.
Desiccated coconut is used in confectionery and bakery industries.
Coconut produces coconut milk
Coconut husks is used as household utensils.
Coconut husks and shell are made into charcoal to be used as fuel.
Tamarind seedling
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Uses
Packaged tamarind pulpThe fruit pulp is edible and popular. It is used as a spice in both Asian and Latin American cuisines, and is also an important ingredient in Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce. The pulp of a young fruit is very sour and acidic and is most often used as a component of savory dishes. The ripened fruit is sweeter and can be used in desserts and drinks, or as a snack.
In temples especially in Asian countries, the pulp is used to clean brass shrine furniture, removing dulling and the greenish patina that form [1] .
The wood is a bold red color. Due to its density and durability, tamarind heartwood can be used in making furniture and wood flooring. A tamarind switch is sometimes used as an implement for corporal punishment.
Tamarind trees are very common in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. They are used as ornamental trees and to provide shade on the country roads and highways. Monkeys love the ripened tamarind fruit.
The pulp, leaves, and bark also have medical applications. For example, in the Philippines, the leaves have been traditionally used in herbal tea for reducing malaria fever. Due to its medicinal value, tamarind is used as an Ayurvedic Medicine for gastric and/or digestion problems.
Tamarind is a staple in the South Indian diet, where it is used to prepare Kuzambu or Sambhar (spicy lentil soup vegetables and tamarind), a soupy preparation called pulikkuzambu popular in Tamil Nadu, Puliyodarai rice, and various types of chutneys. Tamarind is available in Indian stores worldwide. It is also sold as a candy in Mexico (see for example pulparindo), and in various snack forms in Southeast Asia (dried and salted, dried and candied, as a cold drink). Pad Thai, a dish popular in Thai restaurants in the U.S., uses tamarind as its dominant flavor.
Native Philippine TamarindIn Latin America, especially Mexico, and Latin American immigrant communities in the US, the fruit is wildly popular and is fashioned into many kinds of treat. Many popular Tamarindo concoctions are hard candies and suckers and one of the most popular aguas frescas is flavored with tamarind. Tamarind is a popular food in Mexico and is used in many Mexican candies. Likewise Sino-Peruvian food uses tamarind-based juice for its distinctive sweet flavour. [citations needed]
Metaphorical use
In Mexican slang (especially in Mexico City), the term tamarind also refers to traffic control officers, due to the color of their uniforms.
References and external links
Dassanayake, M. D. & Fosberg, F. R. (Eds.). (1991). A Revised Handbook to the Flora of Ceylon. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. (1879). The Flora of British India, Vol II. London: L. Reeve & Co.
Fruits of Warm Climates: Tamarind
Plant Cultures: History and botany of tamarind
California Rare Fruit Growers: Tamarind Fruit Facts
Refusal Actions by FDA as Recorded in OASIS
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Tamarind tree
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Sweet Tamarind Fair
Sweet tamarind is grown mostly in Phetchabun. Sweet Tamarind Fair is thus organised in Phetchabun to celebrate the harvest of this fruit. This day is also called Phetchabun’s Agricultural Day. During the festival, farmers bring their sweet tamarind to sell at reasonable price at Phetchabun’s provincial athletic field where contests of sweet tamarind and other crops are held. Besides this, there are other agricultural exhibitions and entertainment organised during the event.
Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind
Definition
Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind includes straight pod sweet tamarinds, which are See Chom Phoo, Khan Dee, Pra Kai Thong, Phak Darp, and Wahn Lon; and curved pod sweet tamarinds, which are See Thong, See Thong Bao, Nam Pheung (honey), Intaphalum, Muen-Jong, and Sang Arthit (sunshine). All of them are planted in Phetchabun.
Specification of Goods
(1) Sweet tamarind strain: includes See Chom Phoo, Khan Dee, Pra Khai Thong, Phak Darp,
Wan Lon, See Thong, See Thong Bao, Nam Phueng (honey), Intaphalum, Muen-Jong, and
Sang Arthit (sunshine).
(2) Kinds of Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind
- Straight pod: See Chom Phoo, Khan Dee, Pra Kai Thong, Phak Darp, and Wahn Lon.
- Curved pod: See Thong, See Thong Bao, Nam Pheung (honey), Intaphalum, Muen-
Jong, and Sang Arthit (sunshine).
(3) Physical Characteristic
- Shape: straight pod or curved pod
- Peel: clean brown
- Flesh: delicate and clean color, moist and sticky flesh with little amount of soft, not hard
strings.
- Flavour: sweet and aroma
Production Process
Suitable Environment
(1) Soil: rich soil or sandy clay fertilized with organic matters and sufficient nutrient elements
with good drainage system. The soil floor is more than 1 meter depth. Soil conditions should
have medium acid and alkali combination (pH is between 5-7.5)
(2) Amount of rain. Sweet tamarind tree will grow well if there is regular amount of rain during
the period of flowering and pod maturing. The annual average amount of rain should be
1,000 – 1,300 mm.
(3) Temperature should be between 20 – 35 degrees Celsius.
(4) Relative humidity during the period of flowering and pod maturing should be about 50 – 90%,
and during fully ripe should be less than 60%.
Cultivation
Each sweet tamarind tree should be 6 meters x 6 meters apart.
Harvesting
(1) Harvesting period is in November – April of the following year. They collect only the fully ripe
sweet tamarind.
(2) After harvesting, dry sweet tamarind pod in the sun or fumigate with heat.
Translation provided by the EC-ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Co-operation Programme (ECAP II)
(5) Relation between product and geographical location:
The landscape of Phetchabun is like the lower part of the cooking pan. Soil conditions are sandy rich soil, clay, and lateritic pebble soil. The lower part of the soil is yellowish brown, red, and black. The acid and alkali condition is with pH 4.50-8.0. The central part of the province is on the Pa Sak River flowing from the north to the south. The landscape is with mountain range, plateau, highland, and plain areas fertilized with phosphorus and potassium, which are suitable for fruit gardening, especially sweet tamarind. The climate in November – April with low relative humidity is suitable for harvesting the fruits.
History: Phetchabun is the province, where the original sweet tamarind, Muen-Jong, was
cultivated at Lom Kao district for more than 300 years ago. In addition, the province is also the
origin for other several kinds of tamarind, which are named according to the pods of the tamarind
such as See Chom Phoo, and See Thong.
(6) Scope of Geographical Area
Sweet tamarind is grown mostly in Phetchabun, located in lower northern part of Thailand
between 101 eastern longitude degrees and 16 northern latitude degrees. The details are shown
on the map.
(7) Conditions for Registration under Section 15
(1) Develop inspection and monitoring (control) system for the entire process, both at the
manufacturers and provincial levels.
(2) Register agriculturists, who cultivate, distribute and request application for geographical
indications for Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind.
(3) Registered applicants have to compile an operating manual for members requesting to use
Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind Geographical Indication name.
(8) Proof of Origin
(1) Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind must cultivate in the area of Phetchabun province.
(2) Production process must be inspected and monitored, which are to register agriculturists
who cultivate Phetchabun Sweet Tamarind, as well as must have documents to recheck the
process for traceability.]]>