| Botany
The buri palm is the most stately and largest of the Philippine palms. Trunk is
straight and erect, up to 1 meter in diameter and 20 meters in height.
Leaves are large and fan-shaped, rounded in outline, up to 3 meters
long, palmately split into about 100, lanceolate, 1.5 to 6 cm wide, segments extending one-half to two-thirds to the base; petioles are very stout, up to 3 meters long, 20 cm thick at the base, the margins armed with stout black spines. Inflorescence is pyramidal,
up to 7 meters high, the lower branches up to 3.5 meters long, the upper gradually shorter, the ultimate branches about 1 meter long. Flowers
are numerous, greenish-white, 5-6 mm in diameter. Fruits are globose,
fleshy, 2 to 2.5 cm in diameter. Seeds are hard, about 1.5 cm in diameter.
 Distribution
Throughout the Philippines; widely scattered in some regions;
abundant in low and medium altitudes.
Also occurs in India to Malaya.
Constituents
Sucrose is the produce of the sugar cane.
Trunk yields large quantities of starch.
Properties
Sugar is demuilcent, antiseptic, cooling, laxative and diuretic.
Roots are demulcent, emollient, diuretic and stimulant.
Parts utilized
Roots, leaves, stem.
Uses
Edibility
Trunk yields a large quantity of starch.
Buds (ubod) used for salads or eaten as vegetable.
Kernels of young fruits are edible and made into sweetmeats.
It produces a fermented drink (tuba), alcohol, vinegar, syrup and sugar.
Folkloric
Decoction of young plant used for febrile catarrh.
In Malaya, starch used for bowel complaints and the juice of roots used for diarrhea.
In Celebes, roots chewed for coughs.
In Ayurveda, used for hemorrhoids, peptic ulcer, gastritis, excessive sweating, skin disease.
Others
Ornaments: Mature seeds used for rosary beads and buttons.
Fiber: Petiole yields the "buntal fiber," used in making the famous Baliuag and Lucban hats. Also, used for making rope. From the leaf is obtained a fiber, similar to raffia, used in making cloth, strings, and other fancy articles. Fiber from the ribs of unopened leaves used in making Calasiao or Pototan hats. Strips of unopend leaf usedin making hats, mats, sails, baskets.
Leaf: Mature leaf used for covering tobacco bales; rarely, as thatch for houses; the ribs used for making brooms.
Availability
Wild-crafted. |
