Sugar palm
Family Palmae (or Arecaceae)
Arenga pinnata (= Arenga saccharifera), the sugar palm (A. saccharifera 1), is a monoecious feather palm, 10-12 m tall, growing wild in the Indo-Malaysian region.
Use
A large quantity of starch is stored in the trunk (A. saccharifera 2) which is converted into sugar when the palm begins to flower when 7-10 years old. This palm was probably one of man’ s first sources of sugar. To obtain sugar, the peduncles of the male inflorescences are tapped. The sap contains 10-15% of sucrose and is boiled to produce a sticky dark-coloured sugar. The leaf bases provide fibres, which are used for cordage and wickerwork.