93% sucrose, sap crystals contain only 0.5% glucose, 1.5%
fructose, 16% sucrose and 82% inulin - a prebiotic that promotes
digestive health. It can be used as an ideal sweetener. Neera
fetches much better returns compared to copra.
This was one product that Mahatma Gandhi, a strict vegetarian,
used in his diet regularly. He used to take at least 40 to 50 gms of
coconut blossom sugar everyday along with goat’s milk, leafy and
other vegetables, lettuce and ghee. He was specially interested
in this product as can be seen from his own words. “The juice of
coconut tree can be transformed into a sugar as soft as honey.
Nature created this product such that it could not be processed
in factories. Palm sugar can only be produced in palm tree
habitats. Local populations can easily turn nectar into coconut
blossom sugar. It is a way to solve the world’s poverty. It is also as
antidote against misery.” Gandhi wrote this in 1939. It can, as the
Father of our Nation envisaged, add nutrition, dignity and
prosperity to our community.
Major products from coconut shell
Coconut shell powder, coconut shell charcoal and activated
carbon are the three major products that can be made from
coconut shell. Coconut shell powder finds extensive uses in
plywood and laminated board industries, as a phenolic extruder
and as a filler in synthetic resin glues, mosquito coils and agarbathy
industries. Coconut shell powder is manufactured from matured
coconut shell by using pulverizes / ball mills. 12,000 shells would
yield around one tonne shell powder. Coconut shell charcoal is
manufactured by burning shells of fully matured nuts in limited
supply of air sufficient only for carbonisation, but not for complete
destruction. The output of charcoal in the traditional pit method
is just below 30 per cent of the weight of the original shells. In
India the average output in the traditional method has been found
to be 35 kg of charcoal from 1000 whole shells or about 30,000
whole shells yield 1 tonne of charcoal. Shell is converted to shell
charcoal by carbonization process in mud pits, brick kilns and
metallic kilns. Activated Carbon is a non graphite form of carbon
which could be produced from any carbonaceous material.
Coconut shell based activated carbon is considered superior to