**1.2 Red skin fruits**

Palmyrah (*Borassus flabellifer* L.) belongs to family Arecaceae and order Arecales. Palmyrah belongs to very ancient family of trees. Palmyrah is also known as toddy palm and sugar palm. It is a tropical palm tree which is easily cultivated and also found to grow wild. It is native to Indian sub-continent and South-East Asia. It is widely cultivated from Western India through Indo-china to the lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China South-Central, Jawa, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Socotra, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Thailand and Vietnam. The name borassus was derived from a Greek word means leathery covering of the fruit and the word flabellifer means Fan bearer. *Borassus flabellifer* is a robust tree that can live more than 100 years and reach the height of 50 to 60 meters. These can be grown in waste lands, farm filed boundaries, sea costs, parks, industrial estates and house colonies. The trunk is grey, robust and old leaves remain attached to the trunk for several years before falling cleanly. The leaves are look like fan-shaped and it grow up to 3 meters long with robust black teeth on the petiole margins. The palmyrah palm throws out spathes during the flowering season and on tapping the young inflorescence a clear, transparent, sweet, pleasant smelling and refreshing and popular drink called *neera* is obtained with high nutritive value, delicious taste and agreeable flavor. The tapping of *neera* and making it into sugar candy was observed by Chinese traveler Magestanes. The different parts of the plant such as roots, leaves, seeds and fruits are used for various purposes. Now a day's palm trees are being cut

*Bioactive Compounds - Biosynthesis, Characterization and Applications*

by people because of not knowing the medical and commercial values.

(**Table 1**).

**Table 1.** *Species of Borassus.*

**208**

into two varieties.

1.Black skin fruits

2.Red skin fruits

**1.1 Black skin fruits**

In India, palmyrah adorns the dry landscape of the semi arid regions of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Currently, palmyrah palm wealth of India is estimated as 102 million palms and half of them are in Tamil Nadu. Out of 51.90 million palms in Tamil Nadu, more than 50% of palms are concentrated in the Southern district of Thoothukudi [1]. Government of Tamil Nadu in the year 1978 recognized Palmyrah as State Tree. Mccurrah [2] enlisted the following 7 species under the genus Borassus

Based on the pigmentation of fruit skin Palmyrah palm can be broadly classified

Less red pigment is found on the fruit skin. Yield is less but superior seedlings with more starch content and less fibre content noticed. Pulp extraction process is easier. Alkaloids, minerals and free amino acids are lesser than red coloured fruits.

1. *Borassus flabellifer* Indian and Malayan spp.

2. *Borassus aethiopicum* African spp. 3. *Borassus deleg* Sudan 4. *Borassus heiniana* New Guinea 5. *Borassus madagascariensis* Madagascar 6. *Borassus sambiranensis* Madagascar 7. *Borassus machadonis* Malaya

Variable amount of black pigment observed on the fruit skin. Fruit yield per tree is significantly high. Pulp, sugar and starch content are less when compared to black skin fruits.

Both the black skin and red skin fruits are recorded for essential amino acids, lysine and methionine. In view of the fruit characters and sap yield the red skinned fruit varieties are seemed to favour for selection for commercial exploitation (**Figure 1**).

In order to prevent huge quantitative as well as qualitative losses in horticultural crops like plantation crops (cashew nut, areca nut, tea, coffee, oil palm, coconut and Palmyrah palm - as these are consumed mostly after the processing) all steps of improved postharvest technology must be carefully implemented from harvesting and ending with consumption and utilization of their products (value added products). In spite of adequate food production, there is existence of hunger and malnutrition. That might be due to the result of uneven distribution of food, losses and deterioration of available food produce. Hence, maximum utilization of available

**Figure 1.** *Palmyrah palm distribution in Worldwide and India.*

food and minimization of postharvest losses are absolutely essential in the current scenario.

produce in fresh form (palm neera, nungu) as well as in value added form with a capacity to provide high nutritional value which is having the potential to overcome the problem of malnutrition in developing countries like India. Palmyrah palms are suitable for popularization through value addition (tuber flour, jaggery) which helps in income generation and thus it will improve food security to the poor and livelihood security of the marginal farmers. They can potentially reduce the dependency on few major species (wheat, sugar cane) while diversifying the agricultural

Fresh palmyrah tender fruit endosperm (*Nungu*), sap (*Neera*) and tuber flour are perishable and highly prone to post harvest losses due to spoilage. After removing from husk, outer skin of palmyrah tender fruit endosperm starts browning and looses appearance and will be fermented which cause sour odour. It is main factor for consumer to judge its freshness. In normal conditions, *nungu* will have very short shelf life of 2–3 days. Palmyrah sap is naturally prone to fermentation within few hours of extraction and becomes alcoholic beverage (Toddy). Under these circumstances, the processing of tender fruit endosperm and sap into value added products with sufficient shelf life is most important to utilize the products further. Thus the shelf life, quality and availability of the products can be improved by concept of value addition and the value added products have to be commercialized. Hence, there is a need to study the scope of postharvest techniques for value

Postharvest treatments, packing material and storage conditions significantly increase shelf life, reduce postharvest losses and maintain nutritional quality of palmyrah tender fruit endosperm as well as sap. Hence, it becomes necessary to find out suitable postharvest treatments such as packing material and storage conditions to extend the shelf life and reduce losses of PTFE, neera and other value added

Palmyrah is referred as tree of life with nearly 800 uses including food, beverage, fiber, fodder, medicinal and timber. Among the various uses of the palm, the sweet sap from the inflorescence for making *neera* obtained by tapping the tip of the inflorescence either male or female is traditionally collected in hanging earthen pots and used to quench thirst. The sweet sap collected early in the morning is refreshing and light drink called *neera* in telugu and marathi and "*pathaneer*" in tamil. *Neera* has sugary sweet in taste, oyster white in colour, translucent with high nutritive value but susceptible to natural fermentation at ambient temperature within a few hours of extraction [3]. The sap collected in the evening or after fermentation becomes sour which is called *kallu* in telugu and *tadi* in marathi. *Tadi* is mostly

When the fruit is very young, the kernel is hollow, soft as jelly and translucent like ice and is accompanied by a watery liquid, sweetish and potable. The jelly part of the fruit is covered with a thin, yellowish-brown skin. These are known to contain watery fluid inside the fleshy white body. Palmyrah tender fruit endosperm (PTFE) contains

43 kcal of energy, 87.6 g of water, 0.8 g of protein, 0.1 g of fat and 10.9 g of carbohydrates per 100 g fresh weight of palmyrah tender fruit endosperm [4].

production system and making it sustainable.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97501*

**4. Importance of value addition in palmyrah**

*Scope, Nutritional Importance and Value Addition in Palmyrah…*

added products and their shelf life in palmyrah.

products *viz.,* palm jaggery and palm tuber flour.

consumed by villagers as raw alcoholic beverage.

**and value added products**

**211**

**5. Uses and nutritional importance of palmyrah natural**

Food material are subjected to spoilage. The aim of food processing or value addition is to protect food against deterioration or spoilage. The rate of spoilage of raw or fresh food commodities may be very high. The spoilage of food is due to three main causes: (1) microbial, (2) enzymatic and (3) chemical. Foods during storage are more or less infected with microbes that lead to decomposition of the food constituents, sometimes produce evil-smelling and toxic substances. Hence, prevention of microbiological spoilage is essential in any preservation method.
