It is also suited for those who are meticulously managing their weights. Moreover, it gives slower increase in blood sugar response when consumed because of the fructose content.
Now dubbed as “health food,” coconut sap sugar (CSS) has been developed and improved through research done by the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Coconut Authority (DA-PCA). And the good news is that it is ready for commercialization.
The process of producing CSS was one of the mature technologies presented at an Agriculture and Fisheries Technology Forum organized by the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR).
The forum was one of the activities being conducted under the auspices of DA-BAR through its National Technology Commercialization Program (NTCP) as part of the efforts of DA under Secretary Arthur C. Yap to fast-track the adoption of mature technologies generated through government support.
“The DA_BAR ensures that new knowledge and technologies are immediately utilized and applied from the farmers up to the consumers,” Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar stressed.
Erlene Manohar of PCA presented the CSS technology through a research paper titled “Coconut Sap Sugar: A high value and promising health food from coconut,” which she co-authored with Nina Marie Kindipan and Lorna Sancha.
Coconut sap sugar, the PCA researchers stressed, is the oyster-white, translucent liquid obtained from the tender unopened inflorescence (spadix). It is extracted by tapping the spadix.
“Each tree can yield up to three liters of coconut sap per day,” they said. They added that CSS is rich in sugars, amino acids (especially glutamic acid), and vitamins.
The sugar produced by boiling the fresh and clean sap through simple evaporation (removing the liquid portion) leaving the solid form of crystals through the transformation of liquid to solid.
It also undergoes pasteurization, boiling, caramelization until sugar crystallization until sugar crystals are produced.
Manohar described sugar sap production as a “simple farm technology” that does not require sophisticated equipment. It is also location-specific (best suitedin Visayas and Mindanao).
Known in Indonesia and Thailand as early as the 1980s, it was introduced in the Philippines in 1998. Subsequently, researchers were conducted under the PCA COGENT (Coconut Genetic Network, based in Malaysia) Poverty Reduction Project initiated in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental.
Coconut Sugar was introduced in the market in 2004, commercially marketed in 2005, and promoted in the market in 2006.
Early this year, clinical studies were done to support claims on its health benefits.
Source: Manila Bulletin, 2007-Aug-01, Wednesday.
