Corypha utan (PROSEA)
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Introduction |
Corypha utan Lamk
- Protologue: Encycl. 2: 131 (1786).
- Family: Palmae
- Chromosome number: 2n= 36
Synonyms
Corypha gembanga (Blume) Blume (1825), C. elata Roxburgh (1832), C. gebanga Blume (1836).
Vernacular names
- Gebang palm, buri palm, agel palm (En)
- Indonesia: gebang, gewang, lontar utan (general)
- Malaysia: gebang, ibus
- Philippines: buri (Bikol, Bisaya, Pampango, Tagalog), silag (Ilokano, Pangasinan), buli (Bisaya, Tagalog)
- Thailand: lan, lanphru (southern).
Origin and geographic distribution
C. utan occurs wild and cultivated from India (Assam, Andaman Islands), Sri Lanka and Bangladesh through SouthEast Asia to tropical Australia.
Uses
Adult leaves of C. utan are used for thatching and house-walls and for making articles such as raincoats, umbrellas and coarse mats (e.g. "kajang" mats in Indonesia). In Timor (Indonesia) they are used to make a traditional musical instrument ("sasando"). Midribs of adult leaves are made into hard brooms and fish-traps. The petiole is cut into strips to be used as weaving material or its fibre ("buntal fibre" in the Philippines) is extracted. In the Philippines this fibre is mainly utilized for the manufacture of the fine "Baliuag" and "Lucban" hats, which have been exported from the Philippines as "Bangkok hats". It is also made into other utility items, such as bags and placemats, cordage and soft brooms, and can be pulped for specialty paper.
Strips from unopened leaves ("buri strips" in the Philippines) are used for weaving: coarser strips are made into sacks, sails and coarse mats for packing, whereas finer strips are made into low grade hats, baskets and fine mats. The upper epidermis of unopened leaves yields an important fibre ("raffia" or "buri raffia" in the Philippines; "agel" in Indonesia) which is made into mats, hats, bags, sails, placemats, folders, shoes and slippers, woven on looms into fabrics ("saguran" cloth in the Philippines) and also serves as tying, wrapping and decor material and for fishing nets. Another product, called "papas" in Sulawesi (Indonesia), is made from still younger unopened leaves, not longer than 0.5 m. It is used for tying and made into strong cordage and fishing nets. Fibres from the midribs of unopened leaves are woven into the durable "Calasiao" or "Pototan" hats and into items such as baskets, trays and cigarette cases. Entire ribs are sometimes made into coarse brooms. They are also used, after soaking in water to make them more pliable, to stitch thatch shingles.
In the Philippines the midribs of young leaves are made into "buri furniture", which is a very important application of C. utan . The hard outer portion of the trunk has also been found suitable for furniture making. The trunk is used for roofs, flooring, panelling and stairs. In Indonesia the trunk is made into drums. Juice can be tapped from the palm tops or from the inflorescence. The juice is sweet and may be turned into palm wine ("tuba" in the Philippines), sugar, alcohol or vinegar. Sago is obtained from the trunk as the palm approaches the flowering stage. The reddish starch is easily digestible, but it is only consumed by people in times of food scarcity. It is also used as livestock feed. The terminal bud is eaten as a vegetable ("palm cabbage"). The young fruits are edible, but nearlyripe fruits are toxic and used as fish poison. Young seeds are made into a sweetmeat by boiling in syrup. Ripe seeds, hard as ivory and black, are used to make buttons, necklaces and rosary beads.
In traditional medicine, a decoction of the roots serves in Indonesia against diarrhoea and the roots are chewed to treat cough. The sago is taken against intestinal complaints. The redbrown gum oozing from the apex of the palm is used against cough, dysentery, and is applied to wounds. In the Philippines a decoction of young plants is taken against feverish colds. C. utan is also grown as an ornamental.
Production and international trade
In the Philippines C. utan is considered the third most important palm after coconut ( Cocos nucifera L.) and nipa palm ( Nypa fruticans Wurmb). The production of raffia fibre from C. utan in the Philippines in 1996-2000 averaged 98 t per year, mainly from Aklan (Panay; 69 t/year), Quezon (southern Tagalog; 13 t/year) and Bohol (12 t/year ). The average buntal fibre production in the same period was only 8 t per year, mainly from Quezon (5 t/year), Marinduque (2 t/year) and Palawan (1 t/year ).
The average annual raw raffia and buntal fibre exports from the Philippines in 1996-2000 were 26 t and 0.4 t, respectively, with an average annual export value of US$ 81 000 and US$ 3200, respectively. Raffia fibre was exported to a number of countries including the United States and Hong Kong and buntal fibre only to Japan and Hong Kong. The export earnings from manufactured products decreased from around US$ 1.5 million per year in the early 1990s to only about US$ 400 000 per year in 1999 and 2000. The average export earnings from manufactured products in 1996-2000 were US$ 820 000 per year, mainly from buri hats (240 000 pieces; value US$ 407 000), raffia hats (69 000; US$ 219 000), buri placemats (211 000; US$ 112 000) and buntal hats (48 000; US$ 79 000). The main export markets for these manufactured products are the United States, Japan, the European Union and Australia. Furniture made from the midribs of the leaflets is also exported from the Philippines. Elsewhere the products of C. utan are usually traded only locally and no production or trade statistics are available for countries other than the Philippines.
Properties
The ultimate fibre cells of buntal fibre obtained from the petioles of C. utan are (1.5-)2.1(-2.7) mm long and (13-)24(-39) μm in diameter, with a lumen width of (3-)12(-24) μm and a cell-wall thickness of (4-)6(-9) μm. The Runkel ratio is (0.46-)1.08(-2.82). The recorded elongation at break ranges from 3-5%. No reliable information is available on the chemical composition of C. utan fibre. The fibre cells in the trunk are 1.2-2.3 mm long, with a diameter of 28-35 μm and a lumen width of 13-18 μm. Though adult leaves of C. utan are used for thatching, they are not very suitable for this purpose, because they do not last long and rapidly turn brittle.
Adulterations and substitutes
In South-East Asia other multipurpose palms such as Borassus flabellifer L. and Nypa fruticans also yield material for weaving, thatch and palm wine.
Description
A robust, solitary, one-stemmed, bisexual tree palm 10-30 m tall. Stem erect, columnar, 35-75 cm in diameter, unarmed, closely ringed with leaf scars. Leaves crowded, forming a large crown, withering early, tending to abscise under their own weight; petiole robust, 2-5(-7) m long, deeply furrowed, margins sharply toothed; blade orbicular, costapalmate, 1.5-3.5 m in diameter, regularly divided to about half its radius into 80-100, single-fold, linear segments. Inflorescence a massive, terminal, much-branched, paniculate structure, 3-6 m long, final branches ending as rachillae bearing spirally arranged adnate cincinni of up to 10 flowers, the whole inflorescence bearing up to 10(-60) million flowers; flowers bisexual, calyx tubular, 3-lobed, about 1.5 mm long; petals 3, boat-shaped, about 3 mm long, white, fragrant; stamens 6, about as long as corolla, with narrowly triangular filaments; pistil with 3-grooved, 3-celled ovary, short style and 3-dentate stigma. Fruit a berry-like drupe, subglobose, 2-3.5 cm in diameter, olive-green, pericarp fleshy, endocarp membranous, on a stalk 3-5 mm long. Seed globose, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, hard, with remote-tubular germination.
Growth and development
Fresh seed of C. utan germinates in 3-8 months. As with all Corypha spp., growth is very slow, particularly in the first 10 years. C. utan develops according to Holttum's architectural model, characterized by an unbranched axis and a terminal inflorescence. In contrast to most other palms but in common with Eugeissona triste Griff. and Raphia P. Beauv., flowering is hapaxanthic: upon flowering vegetative growth of the flowering stem ceases and the stem eventually dies. The vegetative period of C. utan lasts 25-30(-100) years, and the flowering and fruiting period is 1-2 years, during which time the stored sago is used up. During fruit development the leaves wither and after fruiting the palm dies. The inflorescence is the largest among seed plants. An individual palm studied in detail in southern Florida flowered after 44 years, during which time it had produced about 350 leaves and a trunk 19 m tall and 86 cm in diameter. The inflorescence was 4.5 m tall and carried an estimated 4-15 million flowers, which after 18 months had yielded 250 000-350 000 fruits.
Other botanical information
Corypha L. consists of about 8 species, distributed from southern India and Sri Lanka through SouthEast Asia to southern China and northern Australia. The distribution has probably been greatly influenced by human cultivation activities. Corypha needs taxonomic clarification. In the Philippines 2 forms of C. utan are distinguished: "limbahon", with red petioles, and "lupisan" with whiter petioles.
C. lecomtei Beccari (synonym: C. laevis (Loureiro) A. Chev.), occurring in Thailand and Indo-China, and C. umbraculifera L. ("talipot palm"), only known from cultivation (mainly in Sri Lanka, India, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and Indo-China) are or can be used much in the same way as C. utan . For centuries strips cut from the leaves of C. umbraculifera have been used, after processing and polishing, to write upon with iron styli, for instance in India and Thailand. These leaves usually served for permanent documents, whereas leaves of Borassus L. were used for ordinary documents only.
Ecology
Corypha palms are mostly associated with human settlements. In the wild they are probably a feature of open seral communities such as alluvial plains or coastal forest, and they do not occur in climax tropical rain forest. C. utan commonly grows in lowland open locations, rarely above 400 m above sea level. In Java it is found in open locations, especially grasslands, up to 200 m altitude, but not along beaches or in mangroves. In Malaysia it is common in the open country in the north. Flowering seems to be induced by long dry periods.
Propagation and planting
C. utan is propagated by seed or by seedlings collected from the ground. Seeds lose their viability quickly. The recommended planting distance in the Philippines is 5 m × 5 m, but it is usually planted around the house, not in plantations.
In vitro culture of excised embryos is possible on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium. Callus production has been induced on MS medium containing 100 mg/l 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 3 mg/l N6-(δ2-isopentyl)-adenine (2IP).
Husbandry
In the Philippines, cultivated C. utan is mechanically weeded in early growth stages to avoid competition with weeds and ensure survival. Fertilizing is not usual, but NPK-fertilizers, organic fertilizers and green manure may occasionally be applied. The plants may be watered during early growth. Once established, the palms are left until the first leaves are ready for harvest.
Diseases and pests
C. utan is a host of cadang-cadang, a devastating disease of coconut in the Philippines, especially in the Bicol region and adjacent provinces. It is caused by the cadang-cadang viroid (CCVD). Symptoms in C. utan include reduced frond size, stunting and yellowing of the leaves. Control methods are unknown, but the eradication of diseased palms and the sterilization of tools used on the palms may help to reduce the spread and incidence of the disease.
Harvesting
It takes about 6-7 years from planting before the first leaves of C. utan can be harvested. To obtain buri material, the palm is climbed and unopened leaves are cut. It is recommended that at least 2 open leaves are left, if not, subsequent leaves open earlier and have shorter petioles and leaflets, and thus are of lower quality. For the production of buntal fibre, petioles of adult leaves are cut at their base and divided into base, middle and tip, to make grading and classification of the fibre easier. Each piece is 1-1.3 m long, the estimated maximum length needed for hat-making.
There are 2 ways of tapping juice. In the first, a deep hole is cut at the base of the emerging inflorescence and the juice which runs from it is collected. In the second, employed on non-flowering palms, the leaves above the prospective tapping point are stripped off the palm, the top is removed, the bare end of the trunk is bound with rattan and arrangements are made for collecting the juice. By repeatedly cutting fresh surfaces the juice is kept running. Sometimes a thatch is made to protect the cut from sun and rain. On average C. utan can be tapped for about 2-3 months, after which time the juice stops flowing, and the palm is abandoned to die. In the Philippines, sugar is made from the juice by boiling for 6 hours, after which the kettle is removed from the fire and the contents are stirred until the sugar granulates. To obtain sago, the trunks are cut, split, pounded, and the sago is extracted with the aid of water.
Yield
The number of leaves which can be harvested from C. utan has been estimated at 8-12 per palm per year. Tapping yields of up to 4000 l juice per palm have been recorded for the Philippines. A single palm contains about 90 kg sago.
Handling after harvest
To prepare "agel" from C. utan in South Sulawesi the leaves are torn at the foldings, the ribs are removed and the remaining 2-3 cm wide strips are dried. During drying the shiny upper surface tends to separate from the lower surface. After the hard ends have been cut off, the upper and lower surfaces are separated, and the latter usually discarded. The upper surfaces are bundled and traded. Their value depends largely on the care exercised in preparing them. "Papas" strips are prepared in a similar way, except that the upper and lower surfaces are separated without prior drying. The upper surface is immediately divided into strips 1-1.5 mm wide, which are soaked in fresh water for a night and placed in boiling water for a quarter of an hour the following day to keep them white. The strips are rolled between the fingers and subsequent drying leads to curling of the edges. In Java and Madura "agel" is prepared in the same way as "papas" in Sulawesi: the upper and lower surfaces are immediately separated. In Madura the weaker lower surface is used in weaving as weft. For the production of "kajang" mats in Indonesia adult leaves are cut into strips in such a way that the ribs are in the middle of the strips. The strips are placed in double layers, with each strip in the upper layer covering halves of 2 different strips in the lower layer, and are sewn together. Two of these double layers are then placed over each other and sewn together.
In the Philippines buntal fibres are extracted from the petioles by hand-pulling or by retting. In the former case the fibrous material is pulled out from the base after the epidermis has been removed. Hand-pulled and retted buntal fibre have 4 grades each. Fibres from the midribs of unopened leaves are made into hats by removing the ribs, grading them to colour, splitting them, removing the soft interior and splitting the halves again once or twice. The resulting strands are smoothed and worked down to the required thickness, after which they are ready for weaving. In the Philippines raffia fibre is commercially traded in bleached and unbleached forms, each with 3 grades.
Genetic resources
C. utan does not seem to be threatened with extinction. No germplasm collections or breeding programmes of C. utan are known to exist.
Prospects
In view of the wide range of products obtained from C. utan , this palm will undoubtedly remain important as a local source of weaving material and fibres, thatch, palm wine, sago and construction material. Exports of C. utan fibre products from the Philippines, however, have declined strongly in the past decade, because the high price of the raw material has made these products uncompetitive. Improved design of existing products and the development of new applications (e.g. specialty papers from buntal fibre) and production technologies are considered necessary to reverse this trend.
Literature
- Brown, W.H., 1951. Useful plants of the Philippines. Reprint of the 1941 edition. Vol. 1. Technical Bulletin 10. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines. pp. 284-299. 2 Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA), no date. Philippine fibers and their characteristics. FIDA, Makati, the Philippines. 3 Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA), 2001. Philippine buri industry. FIDA, the Philippines. 11 pp. 4 Groen, L.E., Siemonsma, J.S. & Jansen, P.C.M., 1996. Minor species yielding non-seed carbohydrates. In: Flach, M. & Rumawas, F. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 9. Plants yielding non-seed carbohydrates. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands. pp. 169-170. 5 Hart, D.V. & Somoza, I.L., 1965. "Tambal para sa uhaw" [Medicine for one's thirst]: the ethnography of the buri palm in barrio Caticugan, Negros, Philippines. The Philippine Journal of Science 94(3): 339-371.
- Lainez, M., 1984. Buntal fibres. In: Rubio, P.P. & Llemit, N.V. (Editors): Lesser used fiber crops. Proceedings of the Seminar-Workshop on Research and Development of Fiber Crops Other than Abaca and Cotton, 25-27 August 1982. Philippine Council for Agriculture and Resources Research and Development, Los Baños, the Philippines. pp. 22-24.
- Manaig, L.P., 1986. Buri: a very useful palm. Canopy International 12(3): 9.
- Utami, N.W. & Murningsih, T., 1992. Bagor hasil tenun konvensional dari Kabupaten Kulon Progo ["Bagor", a conventionally woven product of Kulon Progo district]. In: Nasution, R.E., Riswan, S., Tjitropranoto, P., Waluyo, E.B., Martowikrido, W., Roemantyo, H. & Wardoyo, S.S. (Editors): Prosiding Seminar dan Lokakarya Nasional Etnobotani [Proceedings of the National Seminar and Workshop on Ethnobotany], Cisarua-Bogor, 19-20 Februari 1992. Perpustakaan Nasional R.I., Jakarta, Indonesia. pp. 231-235.
Authors
R.E. Nasution & H.C. Ong
