| Botany
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,
with stout black spines on the margins. Inflorescence is pyramidal,
up to 7 meters high, the lower branches up to 3.5 mreyers long, with
shorter upper branches, 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.
Chemical constituents
and properties
Sucrose is the produce of the sugar cane.
Sugar is demuilcent, antiseptic, cooling, laxative and diuretic.
Roots are demulcent, emollient, diuretic and stimulant.
Parts utilized
Roots, trunk.
Uses
Folkloric
Decoction of young plant used for febrile catarrh.
Starch used for bowel complaints.
Juice of roots used for diarrhea.
Roots chewed for coughs.
Others
Buri palm produces a fermented drink called "tuba",
alcohol, vinegar, syrup, and sugar.
The trunk yields starch.
The ubod (bud) is eaten as vegetable or used for salads.
Kernel of young seeds are edible and the mature seeds used as beads
for rosaries and buttons. Buntal is made from the petioles, a fiber
used in the making of hats (Lucban and Baliuag) and ropes.
The mature leaf is used as thatch for housing; the ribs, for making
brooms. From the unopened leaf is also obtained a very fine fiber used
for the manufacture of items of utility: cloths, strings, hats, mats,
bags, baskets, etc.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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