SAGO PALM AND ITS POTENTIAL

SAGO PALM AND ITS POTENTIAL

The Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) is indigenous to Southeast Asia where it is considered a staple food source and utilized for its wide industrial purposes. It is also called embolong, bagsang, langdang, or lumban in the Visayas, or Lumbia in Bagobo.

Sago is a significant source of starch contained in its trunk. The starch has a high food value and can be used as substitute for flour. The estimated starch yield per tree ranges from 50 to 75 kg. The pith, bud, and shoot are also edible. The sap can be made into wine, vinegar, and sugar.

The leafstalks are split and used as construction materials for lighthouses while the external -part of the trunk is used for constructing floors and rafters. The leaflet midribs and the outer parts of the leaf petiole, on the other hand, are used for weaving mats and baskets.

In some parts of the Visayas, shingle made from Sago leaves is believed to be a good substitute for nipa shingle. Sago shingle has four to five times longer service life than that of the nipa shingle. The sago shingle lasts 15-20 years when used as roofings, and even longer when used as wallings.

CONSERVATION PUSHED

Despite its potential, Sago remains one of the country’s underutilized crops. Extraction of its starch content follows a crude process wherein the trunk is stripped and sundried. The dried strips are then pulverized and the starch extracted is cooked.

In some areas it was observed that Sago palm is more of a roofing material than a food source. Professor Dulce M. Flores of UP Mindanao Department of Food Science, who also conducted a research on Sago conservation and utilization, cited the-rampant cutting of sago for roofing and construction purposes as well as to give way for other high-value cash crops. She warned that if such practice continues, the country would lose a crop that has a vast potential as a food and industrial plant.

Basically, Ibisate said that the use of in vitro culture as an alternative technique to mass propagate genetically superior Sago palm would not only conserve this indigenous palm but also help revive the Sago industry in Panay Island, which is comprised of Antique, Aklan, Iloilo, Capiz, Negros Occidental, and Guimaras.

The technology has already caught the interest of the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD), which according to Ibisate, will be funding a related study on Sago palm in partnership with ASU.

Recently, the University has considered a proposal to study the potential of Sago palm as a source of bio-ethanol, which will be another economically important application for this underutilized palm.