Sago palm
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Sago Palms ( Metroxylon sagu ) in Papua New Guinea . |
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The True sago palm ( Metroxylon sagu ) is a useful plant from the family of the palm family (Arecaceae) from the Palmsago is obtained.
Synonyms are Metroxylon laeve Mart. and Metroxylon rumphii (Willd.) Mart. The English name sago palm is also used for Cycas revoluta .
description
The species of the genus Metroxylon belong to the so-called real sago palms. They reach an age of around 15 years. Young sago palms grow like shrubs and have thorny leaves.
Sago palms reach heights of growth of up to 20 m and trunk diameter of 60 cm. The bark, which is often covered with spiny leaf sheaths, is about 6 cm thick. The vascular bundle layer following inwards encloses a 50 cm thick starchy pulp from which the sago is obtained.
At the tip of the shoot they have a rosette with up to 12 m long pinnate leaves with thick stems. Runners-like shoots are formed at the base of the trunk, which drive out roots. These shoots are used for vegetative reproduction.
The sago palms are hapaxanth , i.e. that is, they bloom only once at the end of their life with a terminal candelabra-like, panicle inflorescence with numerous flowers. If they are not used and thus felled, this species forms plum-sized fruits.
Other types with the same use
In addition to Metroxylon sagu, there are other sago palms from which starch is obtained, but which is of lower quality:
- Burning palm ( Caryota urens L. ): From East Asia. The species is of local importance as a useful plant in India and Ceylon. In addition to starch, it also provides sugar and leaf stalk fibers.
- Nepalese dwarf date palm ( Phoenix acaulis Buchh.-Ham. ), Is also used as an ornamental plant.
- Sugar palm ( Arenga pinnata (Wurmb) Merr. ): East Asia.
- Caribbean Royal Palm ( Roystonea oleracea (Jacq.) OF Cook ): Central and Western South America, Brazil.
Two types of cycads that are not related to the real sago palms are also used:
- Cycas circinalis L .: South India, Ceylon, western Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines.
- Japanese cycad ( Cycas revoluta Thunb. ): East Asia, Japan.
Location
Sago palms grow in swampy terrain, especially in the coastal area and inland on rivers up to 700 m above sea level . A warm and humid climate with consistently high levels of warmth and humidity are just as characteristic of the location as its high light requirements. They are therefore relatively free. Plantations are rare.
distribution
The genus Metroxylon has its home in the Indomalayic area. Their occurrence is strictly limited to the tropics and extends to a belt of 10 ° north and south latitude in Southeast Asia.
ingredients
Palmsago contains 13-16% water, 80-85% starch, 0.6% protein and 0.6% fat.
Cultivation and use
The harvest of Palmsago begins just before the trees bloom. The palms are felled, then defoliated and cut into pieces 1 to 2 m in length. The tip and base are discarded.
Then you split the bark lengthways and lift it from the white central pulp. The bark then serves as a base for extracting the pulp.
In days of work, the locals crush the pulp with chisel hammers to a powder. This is then kneaded with water. The starch, which is suspended in milky liquid, flows off in the boat-like bark tubs and settles as raw sago , which is then wrapped in palm leaves in bundles and dried over fire. The raw sago stored in this way can be kept for many weeks.
In this form, the locals cover their own needs for starch, even if their share of raw sago is only 50%. The rest consists of cell wall components and acts as dietary fiber. The locals also trade raw sago as a commodity. Approx. 200 kg of raw sago can be obtained from a palm trunk.
For export, the raw sago is washed several times, dried in the sun, chopped and processed into round sago grains. In some companies, the moist starch dough is passed through sieves of a certain pore size. The particles that pass through fall onto hot plates, which are constantly rocking, rolling the particles into round grains and drying them at the same time.
There are several types of sago in the trade:
- Palmsago from sago palms
- Portlandsago made from taro starch
- Tapioca - or sago starch from manioc or sweet potato
- German sago or potato sago made from potato starch .
Sago palms also serve as a building material . Walls are built from the leaf stalks on some islands, and the leaf fronds are used to cover roofs that are supposed to remain tight for up to 5 years. The seeds are used as buttons . Sago palms are ideal for floor growing . A fiber can also be obtained from the sago plam.
Folklore and origin of name
The Papuan name sago means something like "bread", because the strength of these palm trees provides the flour for bread and flat cakes on many islands. Marco Polo brought the first sago to Europe in 1280. He reported on these palms and their importance as an important food for the people. In the 16th century the Portuguese brought sago into trade. Today, Sago is an important export item, especially for Singapore. The name Metroxylon rumphii derives from Georg Eberhard Rumpf called Rumphius (1628–1702), who was born in Hanau in Dutch services, among other things, as governor and naturalist and who first described Metroxylon in botanical terms. A detailed description of the production of raw sago is provided by Alfred Russel Wallace in his work The Malay Archipelago (1869).
See also
literature
- Wolfgang Franke: Crop science: usable plants of the temperate latitudes, subtropics and tropics . 6th edition. Thieme, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-13-530406-X .
- Vernon Hilton Heywood : Flowering Plants of the World . Birkhäuser, Basel Boston Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-7643-1305-6 .
