Coconut Trees and nuts:
At present, there are more than 300 million coconut trees bearing an annual average of 12 billion nuts in the Philippines.
Coconut Fat:
At present, there are more than 300 million coconut trees bearing an annual average of 12 billion nuts in the Philippines.
Coconut Fat:
| Top ten coconut producers — 19 December 2009 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Production (tonnes) | Footnote | ||
 Philippines | 19,500,000 | * | ||
 Indonesia | 15,319,500 | |||
 India | 10,894,000 | |||
 Brazil | 2,759,044 | |||
 Sri Lanka | 2,200,000 | F | ||
 Thailand | 1,721,640 | F | ||
 Mexico | 1,246,400 | F | ||
 Vietnam | 1,086,000 | A | ||
 Papua New Guinea | 677,000 | F | ||
 Malaysia | 555,120 | |||
 Tanzania | 370,000 | F | ||
| World | 54,716,444 | A | ||
| Coconut shell ash compound | |
|---|---|
| Compound | Percent |
| K2O | 45.01 |
| Na2O | 15.42 |
| CaO | 6.26 |
| MgO | 1.32 |
| Fe2O3 + Al2O3 | 1.39 |
| P2O5 | 4.64 |
| SO3 | 5.75 |
| SiO2 | 4.64 |
| Source: Jasper Guy Woodroof (1979). "Coconuts: Production, Processing, Products". 2nd ed. AVI Publishing Co. Inc. | |
| Coconut shell compound (dry basis) | |
|---|---|
| Compound | Percent |
| Cellulose | 33.61 |
| Lignin | 36.51 |
| Pentosans | 29.27 |
| Ash | 0.61 |
| Source: Jasper Guy Woodroof (1979). "Coconuts: Production, Processing, Products". 2nd ed. AVI Publishing Co. Inc. | |
The coconut palm yields up to 75 fruits per year[citation needed]. Nearly all parts of the palm are useful, and it has significant economic value.
Coconuts' versitility is sometimes noted in its naming. In Sanskrit it is kalpa vriksha("the tree which provides all the necessities of life"). In Malay language, it is pokok seribu guna ("the tree of a thousand uses"). In the Philippines, the coconut is commonly the "Tree of Life".[citation needed]
Flower
Coconut Flower and Kerala Marriage
In Kerala in South India, coconut flowers must be present during a marriage ceremony. The flowers are inserted into a barrel of unhusked rice (paddy) and placed within the sight of the wedding ceremony.
Husk
In Thailand, the coconut husk is used as a potting medium to produce healthy forest tree saplings. The process of husk extraction from the coir bypasses the retting process, using a custom-built coconut husk extractor designed by ASEAN-Canada Forest Tree Seed Centre (ACFTSC) in 1986. Fresh husks contains more tannin than old husks. Tannin produces negative effects on sapling growth.[22]
In India, the coconut husk is used in the manufacture of coir, which is subsequently used in the production of rope, as well as household products like door mats and sacks.[citation needed]
Shell
In India, coconut shells are used as bowls and in the manufacture of various crafts products, including buttons. In parts of South India, the shell and husk are burned for smoke to repel mosquitoes.
Culinary
Culinary uses of the various parts of the coconut include:
- The nut provides oil for cooking and making margarine.
- The white, fleshy part of the seed, the coconut meat, is edible and used fresh or dried in cooking.
]Coconut water
Main article: Coconut water
- The cavity is filled with coconut water, which is sterile until opened. It mixes easily with blood, so for these reasons it was used duringWorld War II as an emergency transfusions.[citation needed]
- It contains sugar, fiber, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and provides an isotonic electrolyte balance, making it a nutritious food source. It is used as a refreshing drink throughout the humid tropics, and is used in isotonic sports drinks. It can also be used to make the gelatinous dessert nata de coco. Mature fruits have significantly less liquid than young immature coconuts, barring spoilage.
Coconut milk
Main article: Coconut milk
- Coconut milk is made by processing grated coconut with hot water or milk, which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds. It should not be confused with coconut water, and has a fat content around 17%.[citation needed] When refrigerated and left to set, coconut cream will rise to the top and separate from the milk. The milk is used to produce virgin coconut oil by controlled heating and removing the oil fraction. Virgin coconut oil is found superior to the oil extracted from copra for
cosmetic purposes.[citation needed] - The leftover fiber from coconut milk production is used as livestock feed.
Toddy and nectar
- The sap derived from incising the flower clusters of the coconut is drunk as neera, or fermented to produce palm wine, also known as "toddy" or, in the Philippines, tuba. The sap can be reduced by boiling to create a sweet syrup or
candy , too. - Coconut nectar is an extract from the young bud, a very rare type of nectar collected and used as morning break drink in the islands ofMaldives, and is reputed to have energetic power, keeping the "raamen" (nectar collector) healthy and fit even over 80 or 90 years old. A by-product, a sweet honey-like syrup called dhiyaa hakuru is used as a creamy sugar for desserts.
[edit]"Millionaire's Salad" and coconut sprout
- Apical buds of adult plants are edible, and are known as"palm-cabbage" or heart-of-palm. They are considered a rare delicacy, as harvesting the buds kills the palms. Hearts of palm are eaten in salads, sometimes called "millionaire's salad".
- Newly germinated coconuts contain an edible fluff of marshmallow-like consistency called coconut sprout, produced as the endosperm nourishes the developing embryo.
Philippines and Vietnam
- In the Philippines, rice is wrapped in coconut leaves for cooking and subsequent storage; these packets are called puso.
- Coconut milk, also known as gata in the Philippines, and coconut flakes are popularly used for cookings, such as the food like Laing, Ginataan, Bibingka, Coconut Rice, Ube Halaya, Pich Pichi, Palitaw, Cassava Cake and many more.
- In Vietnam, coconut is grown mainly in Ben Tre Province, often called the "land of the coconut". It is used to make
candy , caramel and jelly. - Coconut juice and coconut milk are used, especially in Vietnam's Southern style of cooking, including kho and chè.
India
- In Kerala, many dishes include coconut. The most common way of cooking vegetables is to scrape coconut and then steam the vegetables with coconut and spices after frying in a little oil. Dishes that include scraped coconut are generally referred to as "thoran", while dishes without scraped coconut belong to the class "Mezhukku purratti".
- People from Kerala make "chamandis", which involves grinding the coconut meat with salt, chillies, and whole spices. The "chamandi" is eaten with rice or kanji (rice gruel).
- Coconut meat is used as a snack and is eaten with jaggery or molasses.
- "Puttu" is a culinary delicacy from Kerala, in which layers of coconut alternate with layers of powdered rice, all of which fit into a bamboo stalk. In recent times this has been replaced with steel or aluminium tubes, which is then steamed over a pot.
- Daily at least one coconut "tamil:தேங்காய்" is broken in the middle class families in Tamil Nadu for food.
- Invariably the main side dish served with Idli, Vada, and Dosa is coconut chutney.
- Coconut is mixed and ground with spices for sambar and lunch dishes.
Industrial and commercial use
Coir
- Coir (the fiber from the husk of the coconut) is used in ropes, mats, brushes, caulking boats and as stuffing fiber; it is used in horticulturein potting compost.
- Coir is used in mattresses at Kerala, in India. Tamil Nadu stands first in the manufacture of brown fiber, and is second to Kerala in the fiber production in India. The number of coir industries in Tamil Nadu is 5,399.[23]
Coconut leaves
- Coconut leaves are used for making brooms in India. Guyana as the green of the leaves are stripped away leaving the vein (a wooden-like, thin, long strip) tied together form a broom.
- The leaves provide materials for baskets and roofing thatch.
- Leaves can be woven into roofing or mats.
- Leaves are woven into a basket that can draw well water.
- Two leaves (especially the younger, yellowish shoots) are leaved into a shell to the size of the palm and infill with rice - also known as "ketupat" in Malay archipelago.
- Dried coconut leaves can be burned to ash, which can be harvested for lime.
- The stiff leaflet midribs can be used to make cooking skewers, kindling arrows, or are bound into bundles, brooms and brushes.
- The mid-rib of the coconut leaf is used as a tongue-cleaner in Kerala.
- In India, particularly in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the woven coconut leaves are used as 'pandals' (temporary sheds) for the marriage functions.
Copra
Copra is the dried meat of the seed and, after further processing, is a source of low grade coconut oil. Coconut oils are used to make soap.
Plant densities in Vanuatu for copra production are generally 9 meter, allowing a tree density of 100–160 trees per hectare.
Husks and shells
- The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a source of charcoal.
- Dried half coconut shells with husks are used to buff floors. In the Philippines, it is known as "bunot", and in Jamaica it is simply called "coconut brush"
- "Tempurung" as it is called in Malay language, used as soup dish and if fixed with a handle will become a ladle.
- Activated carbon manufactured from coconut shell is considered[by whom?] superior to those obtained from other sources, mainly because of small macropores structure which renders it more effective[weasel words] for the adsorption of gas and vapor and for the removal of color, oxidants, impurities and odor of compounds.
- Half coconut shells are used in theatre Foley sound effects work, banged together to create the sound effect of a horse's hoofbeats.
- In the Philippines, dried half shells are used as a music instrument in a folk dance calledmaglalatik, a traditional dance about the conflicts for coconut meat within the Spanish era
- Shirt buttons can be carved out of dried coconut shell. Coconut buttons are often used for Hawaiian Aloha shirts.
- Dried half coconut shells are used as the bodies of musical instruments, including the Chineseyehu and banhu, along with the Vietnamese đàn gáo and Arabo-Turkic rebab.
- In World War II, coastwatcher scout Biuki Gasa was the first of two from the Solomon Islands to reach the shipwrecked, wounded, and exhausted crew of Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 commanded by future U.S. president John F. Kennedy. Gasa suggested, for lack of paper, delivering by dugout canoe a message inscribed on a husked coconut shell. This coconut was later kept on the president's desk, and is now in the John F. Kennedy Library.
Coconut trunk
- Coconut trunks are used for building small bridges; they are preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance. In Kerala (India), coconut trunks are used for house construction.
- Coconut timber comes from the trunk, and is increasingly being used as an ecologically sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has applications in
furniture and specialized construction, notably in Manila's Coconut Palace. - Hawaiians hollowed the trunk to form drums, containers, or small canoes.
- The "branches" (leaf petioles) are strong and flexible enough to make a switch. The use of coconut branches in corporal punishment was revived in the Gilbertese community on Choiseul in the Solomon Islands in 2005.[24]
Coconut roots
- The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a medicine for dysentery. A frayed-out piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.
Use for worship
- In the Ilocos region of northern Philippines, the Ilokano people fill two halved coconut shells with diket (cooked sweet rice), and placeliningta nga itlog (halved boiled egg) on top of it. This ritual is known as niniyogan (niyog means coconut in Ilokano), and is an offering made to the deceased, and one's past ancestors. This accompanies the palagip (prayer to the dead).
- A coconut (Sanskrit: narikela) is an essential element of rituals in Hindu tradition, and often is decorated with bright metal foils and other symbols of auspiciousness.
- It is offered during worship to a Hindu god or goddess. Irrespective of their religious affiliation, fishermen of India often offer it to the rivers and seas in the hopes of having bountiful catches.
- In Hindu wedding ceremonies, a coconut is placed over the opening of a pot, representing a womb.
- Hindus often initiate the beginning of any new activity by breaking a coconut to ensure the blessings of the gods and successful completion of the activity.
- The Hindu goddess of well-being and wealth, Lakshmi, is often shown holding a coconut.[25]
- The coconut has a role in Indian daily life. In South India, for all the functions, where prayer take place, there, the Hindus, keep the coconut and banana, along with other 'Pooja' materials, and break open the coconut and after that only any kind of Pooja / prayers / activities will be started.
- In the Temple Town Palani, before going for the worship of God Murugan, at the foot hills of Palani Hills, for the Ganesha, a coconut will be broken at the place where it is marked for that purpose. Every day, thousands of coconuts are broken, and some devotees break even 108 coconuts at a time as per the prayer.
- In tantric practices, coconuts are sometimes used as substitutes for human skulls.
Decoration
- The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club of New Orleans traditionally throws hand decorated coconuts—the most valuable of Mardi Gras souvenirs—to parade revelers. The "Tramps" began the tradition ca. 1901. In 1987, a "coconut law" was signed by Gov. Edwards exempting from insurance liability any decorated coconut handed from a Zulu float.
Other usages
- Sport fruits are also harvested, primarily in the Philippines, where they are known asmacapuno. They are sold in jars as "gelatinous mutant coconut" cut into balls or strands.
- The smell of coconuts comes from the 6-pentyloxan-2-one molecule, known as delta-decalactone in the food and fragrance industry.[26]
- Coconut is also commonly used as a traditional remedy in Pakistan to treat bites from rats.[citation needed]
- The dried calyx of the coconut is used as fuel in wood fired stoves.
- The fresh husk of a brown coconut is also used as a dish sponge or as a body sponge.
- The inners are removed and the cases used to display food, such as fruit, for gifts in traditional rituals.
Shelter and tools
Researchers from the Melbourne Museum in Australia observed the octopus speciesAmphioctopus marginatus' use of tools, specifically coconut shells, for defense and shelter. The discovery of this behavior, observed in Bali and North Sulawesi in Indonesia between 1998 and 2008, was published in the journal Current Biology in December 2009.[27][28][29] Amphioctopus marginatus is the first invertebrate known to be able to use tools.[28][30]
A coconut can be hollowed out and used as a home for a rodent or small birds. Halved, drained coconuts can also be hung up as bird feeders, and after the flesh has gone, can be filled with fat in winter to attract tits.
Allergies
Food Allergies
Coconut can be a food allergen. It is a top five food allergy in India where coconut is a common food source.[31] On the other hand, food allergies to coconut are considered rare in Australia, the U.K., and U.S.[32] As a result, commercial extracts of coconut are not currently available for skin prick testing in Australia or New Zealand.[33]
Despite a low prevalence of allergies to coconut in the U.S., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began identifying coconut as a tree nut in October 2006.[32] Based on FDA guidance and federal U.S. law, coconut must be disclosed as an ingredient.[34]
Topical Allergies
Coconut-derived products can cause contact dermatitis. They can be present in cosmetics including some hair shampoos, moisturizers, soaps, cleansers and hand washing liquids. Coconut-derived products known to cause contact dermatitis include: coconut diethanolamide, cocamide sulphate, cocamide DEA, CDEA, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauroyl Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Sodium Cocoyl Sarcosinate, Potassium Coco Hydrolysed Collagan, TEA Triethanolamin Laureth Sulfate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Also watch TEA compounds (Triethanolamine) Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl or Cocoyl Sarcosime, Disodium Oleamide Sulfocuccina, Laureth Sulfasuccinate & Disodium Dioctyl Sulfosuccinate.[35]
