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Coconut
Scientific Name: Cocos nucifera
Family: Palmaceae
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The coconut palm is considered to be "king" of the plants in tropical and subtropical regions by the local inhabitants, because for many of them these plants are their only cash crop and primary source of food. All parts of the plant can be used in various ways. In Sanskrit this palm is called kalpa vriksha, which means "tree which gives all that is necessary for living." This is an apt name as the trunk provides excellent wood, the leaves are used by the natives for roofing their huts, and the young terminal buds are eaten under the name of "palm cabbages." The most important products obtained from the fruit, the Coconut (a drupe). Abundant oil is extracted from the endosperm of the fruits; the kernels, freed of the shell and dried, constitute the "copra" which, by pressing, will produce up to 60 - 65% of an oil that is refined and transformed into a vegetable butter good for human nourishment, especially in vegetarian cookery, and for those who find that ordinary butter has too much cholesterol for their well-being. Today there is a great increase in the demand for coconut oil. At room temperature this oil is solid or semifluid; it is white or slightly yellowish and has a pleasing flavor when it is fresh. As well as its uses in the production of margarine and butter, coconut oil is made into soaps, hair lotions, perfumes, cosmetics, cakes and confectionery. The fruit contains a sweetish liquid, coconut milk, which can substitute for drinking water, while the meat, grated and pressed with a small amount of water, will yield coconut milk. This plant grows in areas with little cloudiness, temperatures not lower than 23 degrees Celsius, and precipitation totaling an average of 80 inches per year. Dietetically, coconuts contain a considerable amount of lipids, around 36%; the percentage of usable protein is 4%, much lower than that of other dry fruits, which range between 9% and 20%. The principal salts are compounds of calcium, sodium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, iron and copper, while vitamins are scarce. Coconut "meat" is a good source of energy and easier to digest than other dry fruits. [Bianchini, Francesco, Corbetta, Francesco, Pistoia, Marilena, The Complete Book of Fruits and Vegetables, United States Translation: Crown Publishers, New York, 1976; Originally published in Italy as I Frutti della Terra, Arnoldo Mondadori Publisher, Italy, 1973]