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Uses
Sago pancake

Sago starch is either baked (resulting in a product analogous to bread or a pancake) or mixed with boiling water to form a paste. Sago can be made into steamed puddings such as sago plum pudding, ground into a powder and used as a thickener for other dishes, or used as a dense glutinous flour.[citation needed]

The starch is also used to treat fibre, making it easier to machine. This process is called sizing and helps to bind the fibre, give it a predictable slip for running on metal, standardise the level of hydration of the fibre, and give the textile more body. Most cloth and clothing has been sized; this leaves a residue which is removed in the first wash.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, sago is used in making noodles and white bread. Globally, its principal use is in the form of pearls.

In Brunei, it is used for making the popular local cuisine called the Ambuyat.
Pearl sago

Pearl sago, a commercial product, closely resembles pearl tapioca. Both typically are small (about 2 mm diameter) dry, opaque balls. Both may be white (if very pure) or colored naturally grey, brown or black, or artificially pink, yellow, green, etc. When soaked and cooked, both become much larger, translucent, soft and spongy. Both are widely used in South Asian cuisine, in a variety of dishes, and around the world, usually in puddings. In India, pearl sago is called sabudana ("whole grain") and is used in a variety of dishes on occasion of religious fasts.

[edit] Botany

The sago palm, Metroxylon sagu, is found in tropical lowland forest and freshwater swamps across Southeast Asia and New Guinea and is the primary source of sago flour. It tolerates a wide variety of soils and may reach 30 meters in height. The palm genus Metroxylon contains several species: two of these, M. salomonense and M. amicarum, are less-important sources of sago in Melanesia and Micronesia.

Sago palms grow very quickly, up to 1.5m of vertical stem growth per year. The stems are thick and either are self-supporting or have a moderate climbing habit. The leaves are pinnate, not palmate. The palms will only reproduce once before dying; they are harvested at the age of 7 to 15 years, just before flowering, when the stems are full of starch stored for use in reproduction.

In addition to its use as a food source, the leaves and spathe of the sago palm are used for construction materials and for thatching roofs. The fibre can be made into rope.

[edit] Cycad sago

The sago cycad, Cycas revoluta, is a slow-growing wild or ornamental plant. Its common names, "Sago Palm" and "King Sago Palm", are misnomers since it is actually a cycad. Cycads are gymnosperms from the family Cycadaceae; palms are angiosperms (flowering plants) from the Arecaceae. The two taxa are completely unrelated. Interestingly, cycads are also a type of living fossil, having survived since at least the early Permian period.

Processed starch known as sago is made from this and other cycads. It is a less-common food source for some peoples of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. There are large biological and dietary differences between the two types of sago. Unlike Metroxylon palms (discussed above), cycads are highly poisonous: most parts of the plant contain the neurotoxins cycasin and BMAA. Consumption of cycad seeds has been implicated in the outbreak of Parkinson's Disease-like neurological disorder in Guam and other locations in the Pacific.

Before any part of the plant may safely be eaten, the toxins must be removed through extended processing. First, pith from the trunk, root, and seeds is ground to a coarse flour and washed carefully to leach out natural toxins. It is then dried and cooked, producing a starch similar to tapioca or palm sago. Cycad sago is used for many of the same purposes as palm sago.

[edit] References

* Flach, M. and F. Rumawas, eds. (1996). Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA) No. 9: Plants Yielding Non-Seed Carbohydrates. Leiden: Blackhuys.
* Lie, Goan-Hong. (1980). "The Comparative Nutritional Roles of Sago and Cassava in Indonesia." In: Stanton, W.R. and M. Flach, eds., Sago: The Equatorial Swamp as a Natural Resource. The Hague, Boston, London: Martinus Nijhoff.
* McClatchey, W., H.I. Manner, and C.R. Elevitch. (2005). Metroxylon amicarum, M. paulcoxii, M. sagu, M. salomonense, M. vitiense, and M. warburgii (sago palm), ver. 1.1. In: Elevitch, C.R. (ed.) Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry. Permanent Agriculture Resources (PAR), Holualoa, Hawaii.
* Pickell, D. (2002). Between the Tides: A Fascinating Journey Among the Kamoro of New Guinea. Singapore: Periplus Press.
* Rauwerdink, Jan B. (1986). "An Essay on Metroxylon, the Sago Palm." Principes 30(4): 165-180.
* Stanton, W.R. and M. Flach, eds., Sago: The Equatorial Swamp as a Natural Resource. The Hague, Boston, London: Martinus Nijhoff.