How Useful Is A Coconut Tree

Why is a coconut tree called "The Tree of Life"? The Coconut Tree is known to have many uses, from its roots to tips, from culinary to non-culinary. In the Philippines, the coconut tree is considered as the "Tree of Life". You must be wondering, why is that so? Allow me to cite the different parts of the coconut tree and its corresponding benefits and/or uses.

Coconut Roots

Coconut roots are used as beverage, dye, mouthwash, and medicine for dysentery (formerly known as flux or the bloody flux). A frayed-out piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.

Coconut Trunks

Coconut trunks, its hardy and durable wood is used for building small bridges, preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance. It is also used to make benches, tables, carvings, picutre frames, tables, tool boxes and construction materials, among others. Paper pulp can also be extracted from the coconut trunk and other woody parts of the tree.

Coconut Branches

Coconut branches (leaf petioles) are strong and flexible enough to make a switch (a flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment).

Coconut Leaves

Coconut leaves can be woven to create effective roofing materials, or reed mats. It can also produce good quality paper pulp, midrib brooms, hats and mats, fruit trays, waste baskets, fans, beautiful midrib decors, lamp shades, placemats, and bags. The stiff leaflet midribs can also be used to make cooking skewers and kindling arrows. Dried coconut leaves can be burned to ash, which can be harvested for lime.

Coconut Fruit

Coconut fruit produces buko, often used for salads, halo-halo (crushed ice with sweetened fruit), sweets and pastries. The "sport fruit" of the coconut known as makapuno is primarily harvested in the Philippines. They are sold in jars as "gelatinous mutant coconut" cut into balls or strands. Considered a delightful delicacy and largely used for making preserves and ice-cream. It is possible for it not to be kept in storage and still, will not germinate.

Coconut Water

Coconut water provides an isotonic electrolyte balance, and is a highly nutritious food source. Uses of coconut water include: coconut water vinegar; coconut wine; production of the chewy, fiber-rich "nata", good as a dessert and as a laxative; as a growth factor; and as a substitute for dextrose. It is also used to cure renal disorders. "Bukolysis" is the medical process of reducing or dissolving urinary stones from the urinary tract, using buko water from 7 to 9 months old coconuts. If you heard of "water therapy", there is also such thing as "buko/coconut therapy".

Coconut Oil

Copra is the dried coconut meat and, after further processing, is a source of high coconut oil content (as much as 64%). Coconut oil is the most readily digested, of all the fats, generally used in the world. Its chief competitors are soya bean oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil. It can be rapidly processed and extracted as a fully organic product from fresh coconut flesh, and used in many ways including as a medicine and in cosmetics, or as a direct replacement for diesel fuel. Virgin coconut oil is found superior to the oil extracted from copra for cosmetic purposes.

Coconut Infloresence

Out of the bud of the coconut tree's infloresence is a fermented juice called coconut toddy or, in the Philippines, tuba. The principal uses of the toddy are: as fresh beverage; for producing alcoholic beverages; for producing vinegar; for making sugar; and as a source of yeast for making bread.

Coconut Husk

Coconut husks are made of bristle fiber (10%), mattress fiber (20%) and coir dust and shorts or wastes (70%). Coir is used in ropes, mats, brushes, caulking boats and as stuffing fibre; it is also used extensively in horticulture for making potting compost. The husk can be used for fuel and are a good source of charcoal. Dried half coconut shells with husks are used to buff wooden floors, making it clean and shiny (free from dusts). In the Philippines, it is known as "bunot" Fresh inner coconut husk can be rubbed on the lens of snorkelling goggles to prevent fogging during use.

Coconut Shell

Coconut shell produces the core of the most saleable household products and fashion accessories that can be turned into lucrative, wide-selling cottage industries. In the Philippines, dried half shells are used as musical instrument in a folk dance called "Maglalatik", a traditional dance about conflicts for coconut meat within the Spanish era. They are also used in theatres, banged together to create the sound effect of a horses' hoofbeats. Half coconut shells may be deployed as an improvised bra, especially for comedic effect or theatrical purposes. Shirt buttons can be carved out of dried coconut shell. Coconut buttons are often used for Hawaiian Aloha shirts.

You see how amazing the coconut tree is? In fact, in the Philippines, it is considered as one of the major dollar earner industry that provides livelihood to most of the country's population. Indeed, a Tree of Life!