Use of Cocnuts

8/8/2019 Use of Cocnuts

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Copyright 2007. Enviro Mulch (UK) Ltd. All Rights Reserved Tel: +44 (0) 1473 829 324 History & Origins – Page 1

History and origins of the coconut palm

When we see images or say or hear the words ‘coconut palm’, a vision of tall waving trees bordering a sandy shoreline underazure blue skies tends to focus the mind. In fact, coconuts (Cocos nucifera) are found throughout the wet tropics between the

latitudes 20° north and south of the Equator. Sandy shorelines and beaches present ideal growing conditions for them: a humidatmosphere, a temperature of 27-30°C, a free-draining well-aerated soil and an abundant supply of fresh groundwater.

Although wild specimens have recently been found growing in natural coastal forest in the Philippines and Australia, no-onereally knows where coconut palms originated. The theory is that the coconut arose somewhere around the western Pacicbasin. History suggests that It was also dispersed by ocean currents, with the seeds protected from the salt sea water by thebrous fruit. They had reached the Americas before Columbus arrived there in 1492, and germinating coconuts were foundwashed up on the shores of the newly-born volcanic island, Anak Krakatoa, in the 1930s.

Coconut palms have been known and used in India for 3,000 years. A letter written by an Arab trader of the eleventh centurynoted that the bre from the palm was resistant to sea water. The Arab traders also taught the population of the Sinhaleseand Malabar coast how to prepare the bre from the nut, since by this time the palm was widespread along the Indo-

Malaysian coast. When Marco Polo visited China in the fourteenth century, he was told that coir bre from the ‘Indian Nut’had been used by the Chinese for 500 years. In the mid-sixteenth century the palm was introduced into Spain and Portugal,Brazil and Puerto Rico by sea-faring traders. The name ‘coconut’ may have been coined by Spanish sailors to describe themonkey-faced appearance of the coconut.

The list of current key coconut growing and producing countries include but is by no means limited to: Sri Lanka, India,Indonesia, Phillipines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam, Jamaica, Fiji,The Ivory Coast, Dahomey and Togo,West Africa and in Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Central and South America.

The Sri Lankan experience

Enviro Mulch (UK) Ltd import all of their natural coconut bre products exclusively from Sri Lanka, a tropical island in theIndian Ocean with miles of palm-fringed sandy beaches. Its compact size means it is a paradise for tourists offering culturalheritage in ancient cities with temples and museums, colourful festivals, sports and relaxation but more importantly thegrowing and production of coconut coir products.

Coconut (Cocos nucifera L) is a perennial tree crop that contributes signicantly to the economy of Sri Lanka. Coconutcultivation spans about 402,649 hectares which accounts for around 21 per cent of agricultural lands in the country. Thecultivated area is mainly conned to the western coast and geographically demarcated in the form of a triangle, referred toas The Coconut Triangle.

The coconut palm has a tall, stout, somewhat exible trunk. In the Sri Lanka Tall variety, the palm attains a height of 15 to30 m when fully grown. The height to which a palm grows is a varietal characteristic but is inuenced by the environmentalfactors such as availability of nutrients, moisture and shade.

The coconut contributes approximately 2 per cent to Sri Lanka’s GDP, 2.5% to export earnings and 5% to employment.Although these numbers are modest, coconut is an important food crop in Sri Lanka in that it provides about 22% of the percapita calorie intake in the diet, being second only to rice paddy, the staple food of Sri Lankans.Sri Lanka produces 36% of the total world brown coir bre output.

Coconut is almost exclusively grown as a rain fed crop in Sri Lanka. Rainfall and temperature are the important climaticfactors inuencing the coconut yield (Peiris et al. 1995), and by extension the national coconut production, upon whichdomestic culinary consumption and processing industry depend.

There are two main monsoon seasons, the southwest monsoon is from May to September and the north eastern is fromNovember to May. The southern coast has an average temperature of 27oC (81oF). The central highlands are cooler, between20oC (68oF) and can be quite chilly in the evenings.

Although the inuence of climate variability has been quantied (Peiris et al. 1995), there has been no ofcial estimate of the economic value of climate variability on coconut production.




Cultivation and Uses

Characteristically, the coconut palm has a tall unbranched trunk surmounted by a crown of fronds, although branched formsare occasionally found. The light grey trunk is ringed at intervals by leaf scars. From its swollen base (bole) adventitious rootsarise – these are strong enough to anchor the palm to the ground during hurricanes and typhoons. Older leaves typically haveleaets (pinnae) on either side of a central stem in a feather-like arrangement, whereas in seedlings and buds the leaves areentire and unbroken. At the top of the stem the leaves surround a large apical bud. This edible bud is known as ‘millionaire’scabbage’ and is considered a delicacy, but its removal causes the tree to die as it is the only growing point.

Flowering begins after 6-7 years. Inorescences (owering heads) are borne in the leaf axils (where the leaf meets thestem). Initially two leathery leaf-like structures (bracts) protect each inorescence. The branched inorescence, which maybe 2 m long, has separate male and female owers. There are only a few female owers on each inorescence and theseare found together with a pair of male owers at the base of the branches; most of the male owers are borne singly or inpairs towards the branch tips. As the owers contain nectaries and are sweet scented, it is thought that they may attractinsects for pollination. However, as the pollen is light and dry, there may also be some wind pollination. The male owersmature and wither before the female owers become receptive (a condition known as protandry) so that owers in the sameinorescence cannot pollinate one another. This ensures cross-pollination.

The coconuts available in this country are only part of the coconut fruit. When rst collected from the tree, they still possesstheir outer layers: a smooth skin ranging in colour from green to brown around a brous layer, which is used commerciallyas coir. These layers surround the hard dark-brown shell, which encases the coconut seed. The outer layer of the seed, the

testa, is the brown papery material that adheres to the white esh (endosperm) when it is removed from the shell. Coconutwater (sometimes, misleadingly known as coconut milk) lls the cavity in the centre of the coconut and can be used as arefreshing drink.

What is coir?

Coir is a coarse bre obtained from the tissues surrounding the seed of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera). The intact fruithas a smooth leathery skin above the thick brous layer. This surrounds the stony dark brown shell, which is actually partof the fruit rather than the seed. Inside the shell are the papery brown outer layer of the seed surrounding the nutritiouswhite esh and the embryo.

The brous layer forms a strong, shock-absorbing mesh which protects the seed from mechanical damage and is water-

resistant. The individual bre cells are narrow and hollow, with thick walls made of cellulose. They are pale when immaturebut later they become hardened and yellowed when a layer of lignin, a complex woody chemical, is deposited on their walls.Mature brown coir bres contain more lignin and less cellulose than bres such as ax and cotton and so are stronger butless exible. White bre is smoother and ner than the harder brown bre but is also weaker. The coir bre is relativelywater-proof and is the only natural bre resistant to damage by salt water.

How is coir processed?

Green coconuts, harvested after about twelve months on the plant, contain pliable white bres. Brown bre is obtained byharvesting fully mature coconuts when the nutritious layer surrounding the seed is ready to be processed into copra anddesiccated coconut. The brous layer of the fruit is separated from the hard shell by driving the fruit down onto a spike tosplit it (de-husking).

Brown bre processing

The brous husks are soaked in pits or in nets in a slow moving body of water to swell and soften the bres. The long bristlebres are separated from the shorter mattress bres underneath the skin of the nut, a process known as ‘wet-milling’.

The mattress bres are sifted to remove dirt and other rubbish, dried and packed into bales. Some mattress bre is allowedto retain more moisture so that it retains its elasticity for ‘twisted’ bre production. The coir bre is elastic enough to twistwithout breaking and it holds a curl as though permanently waved. Twisting is done by simply making a rope of the hank of bre and twisting it using a machine or by hand.

The longer bristle bre is washed in clean water and then dried before being tied into bundles or hunks. Although bristle bremay be sold without further processing, it may be cleaned and ‘hackled’ by steel combs to straighten the bres and remove any

shorter bre pieces. Coir bristle bre may also be bleached and dyed to provide buyers with hanks of different colours.



White bre processing

To separate the white bres, the immature husks are suspended in a river or water-lled pit for up to ten months. Duringthis time micro-organisms break down the plant tissues surrounding the bres to loosen them – a process known as retting.Segments of the husk are then beaten by hand to separate out the long bres which are subsequently dried and cleaned.Cleaned bre is ready for spinning into yarn in the home using a simple one-handed system or a spinning wheel. The naloperation is grading before sale and shipping.

Production Process for Coco Peat

Very Short FibreS

MattreSS FibreSMediuM & Short


CoConut huSk

Wet huSk

briStle long FibreS

CoMbed Material

COIR PITHMOUNTAINSTORAGE

dried raW Material

reSidual Coir Fibre Pith (CoCo Peat)

Soak Husk In Fresh WaterFor 4-6 Weeks To Loosen Fibres

Combing By Spiked Drums To Extract Fibre

Coarse Sifter

Sun Drying

Fine Sifting Process

Articial Drying

dried CoCo Peat dried CoCo Peat

Briquette Pressing Bale Pressing Growbag Plank Pressing

PreSSed PlankS25 kg. baleS4.5 kg. and10 kg. baleS

naked briquetteSbriquetteS/650 gM.or 1000 graM

naked

baleS

Assemble Coco PeatPlanks In Growbags

groWbagSbagged baleS

IndividuallyCustomized Bags

Individual Shrink Wrapping

Packing In Cartons

Fork Lift Loading EXPORT

Palletizing Manual Bulk Loading

Shrink-WraPPedbriquetteS

briquette CartonS Palletized ProduCtS ContainerizedCargo

Containerized Cargo

goodS to bePalletized

un -Palletized

goodS

Fibre duStPluS Very

Short FibreS

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Use of Cocnuts