Benefit of coconut sap

Coconut Flower

Indonesia is a tropical country, with the world's number two longest coastline, no wonder coconut trees are also very much found in this country.

Coconut has become a part of life that cannot be separated by the Indonesian people, almost every day, various foods cooked at home will definitely use coconut.

In the previous article, I made a posts about how to make coconut sugar, there I am review detailed step by step about how to make coconut sugar from the beginning to completion.

Coconut sugar in my place is referred to as “Gula jawa” Javanese sugar or brown sugar, although the appearance of the color tends to be brown, but the name is indeed the most popular.

Introduction to coconut sap

Coconut sugar is made with the basic ingredients of coconut sap, which is taken from the stem of coconut flowers that have not yet bloomed.

Besides being made into coconut sugar, coconut sap can also be directly consumed, or processed into other products.

Around coconut sap

Coconut sap is a clear liquid that comes out of a coconut flower whose buds have not opened, this liquid is the main material for making coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar is often called "Nira" or "legen" in Javanese. Terms derived from the word "legi" which means sweet. In other countries it might be called almost the same namely "Neera".

In a fresh state, coconut sap feels sweet, has a distinctive smell and colourless.

The process of extracting coconut sap is by cutting the base stem of the coconut flower, and the stem of the coconut flower that has been cut will then be put into pieces of bamboo or jerry cans, to collect coconut sap, this process is called tapping.

Tapping process is usually carried out in the morning and evening, because that's when coconut produces a lot of sap.

Why coconut sap is quickly fermented

Coconut sap has a very high content of nutrients or nutrients, potentially very popular and revives microbes in the form of fungi or bacteria around it.

During the tapping process, after the coconut sap drips and comes out of the flower bunches, the sap is directly related to free air.

Like other living things, microbes in the form of fungi will quickly multiply if their life needs are met, namely in the form of adequate food from coconut sap, Air / Oxygen (O2), the appropriate temperature, and the absence of inhibiting growth and development factors, the fungus will can remodel the sugar content of the fresh coconut sap into fermented juice by getting faster and causing the coconut sap to become increasingly sour or bitter or aromatic with alcohol.

I quote from a book written by Child and published in 1974, it can be concluded that coconut sap is a very nutritious food because it has a water content of 75 - 90%, total solids of 15 -19.7% which includes sucrose levels of 12.3 -17.4%, reducing sugar 0.5 -1%, protein 0.23 - 0.32% and ash 0.11 - 0.41%.

Another book reference is written by Gautara and Wijandi (1972) stating that fresh coconut sap contains sugar as much as 14-15%, 8-21% of which is sucrose.

Therefore Nira is very favored by all kinds of bacteria / microbes / microorganisms that cause damage and changes in the properties of the sap.

The speed of fermentation that occurs in coconut sap, will cause the quality of sap for this sugar to decrease, because some sugar is overhauled by enzymes produced from the fermentation process to acid and alcohol.

This process causes the coconut sap to become sour (sour) and slightly bitter. The longer this fermentation process occurs, the more acidic substances are formed, the more there is a change in sugar, which means less sugar.

Coconut sap contains several nutrients including carbohydrates, proteins, fats and minerals. Sweet taste for sap due to its carbohydrate content reaching 11.28%.

This coconut sap is easily fermented because it contains wild yeast that is very active. If the Nira is cooked late, usually the colour of the sap changes to cloudy and yellowish brass, it feels sour, and it smells pungent.

This is due to a breakdown of sucrose into reducing sugars because of the presence of microorganisms in the coconut sap that undergoes fermentation.

Benefits of coconut sap consumed fresh.

So, at least there is 10 benefit if we want to consume coconut sap in fresh condition, here they are :

1. Overcoming constipation
The main trigger that causes a loss of a lot of fiber in food consumed daily. Fiber is needed by the body, herbal medicine has benefits to overcome constipation. Constipation can be resolved quickly and safely.

2. Reducing fever
This drink is very beneficial for adult children. Fever can occur due to a reduced immune system in the body. If you reduce a very high fever you can consume this drink because it can reduce high fever.

3. Maintaining bone health
This drink is beneficial for maintaining bone health. Bones really need vitamins to require density. Increasing age is getting higher. By drinking this drink not only for health, it also needs to support bone safety.

4. Launch breast milk
This drink is also very good to help in consumption by mothers who are consuming because the content contained in this drink that is very high is useful to prevent expenditure or oxidize nutrients that are needed to produce breast milk. If oxidation occurs, breast milk production in the mother will decrease so that the quality of breast milk will also decrease.

5. Refreshes the body
Efficacy of water sap that speaks well is that it can talk about the body. As agreed with the body's agreement, this drink is discussed once more about being drunk during the day. To add freshness, you can add ice cubes.

6. Fattening the body
If previously a lot has been sought by someone to carry out the body. But not for people who have less weight who usually look for ways to gain weight. Nira is a drink that also has the property of gaining weight or fattening the body.

7. Overcome abdominal pain
Usually the usual factors make stomach pain too late to eat, eat wrong or also because your stomach is too sensitive. Although this seems trivial, the pain that is felt cannot be ignored. To overcome this, coconut sap has benefits that are useful for treating stomach aches.

8. Warm the body
It's not just to refresh the body of the benefits of this coconut sap. You can also drink this to warm up your body temperature. In addition, if you get a virus, coconut sap can also fight viruses that have been infected in your body.

9. Prevent osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a bone disease that has occurred due to increasing age where bones need more vitamins to maintain bone density. Therefore, you can drink this juice to prevent Osteoporosis in your bones.

10. Smooth the digestive system
The digestive organ is one of the organs that we must guard to prevent diseases such as intestinal inflammation and others. Coconut sap is a drink that has benefits and efficacy to facilitate the digestive system which can maintain good health in the body.

Processing of coconut sap

Besides being consumed in fresh condition, coconut sap can also be processed into other products, including:

1. Coconut sugar.
Coconut sugar is the most popular product for coconut sap, sugar is a beverage, mixture and seasoning, very multi-functional

2. Alcoholic drinks.
As discussed above, the sap is fermented very quickly, therefore there are also alcoholic drinks from this coconut sap, in my area, this alcoholic drink is called tuak, but, even though this drink is alcoholic, it is still useful for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, for I will discuss this in another paper.

3. Vinegar
This is a product that is now rarely produced, because it is difficult to compete with factory product vinegar. Although vinegar produced from coconut sap is more natural, but there is not much public interest in vinegar.

Conclusion

Coconut is a plant that has many benefits, and some even call this tree a tree of life, because indeed from the roots to the tips of the leaves all can be used to meet human needs, one of which is coconut sap, thanks for reading, hopefully useful.