Coconut water is considered the great fresh beverage. Coconut is used widely for health and beauty care nowadays. Coconut is a familiar fruit of the tropical countries. The fruit is popular for its nutritional water, and also for the derived oil and milk.
History and description of coconut
Coconut water can make us to be fresh under the sun and the tree with the shadow can make us to be cool under the sunlight. Coconut is a member of palm family and its origin is still debated. The origination of coconut was considered could be from south-eastern Asia, or northwest South America, or India….However, people accepted that coconut was originated from the Indian and Indonesian area. For the fruit structure, it could float by itself and then spread through the oceans to the world.
There are tall and dwarf coconut tree, the tall could be up to 30m high and the other much shorter. Coconut trees commonly grow well in sand and saline soil with moisture around 70-80%. They could stand the sunshine and normal rainfall.
Coconut fruit is actually a drupe than nut. It has three layers like other fruits. The first layer is fiber which is hard when the coconut fruit is immature, and will become softer and drier when it’s mature, in order to protect the fruit when it falls down to the ground. The second layer is wooden hard to protect the kernel and water inside.
Coconut usage
Coconut fruit could be use as immature or mature. The immature fruit contains sweet water and a soft kernel like jelly. The outer layer of the coconut could be cut enough at the top to thrust by a straw to drink the water directly. Coconut water is a popular and nutritional drink especially in the tropical countries.
The mature coconut fruit still contains a little amount of water inside, but it’s strong and not used as a drink popularly than the immature one. This water could be used in cooking. The mature kernel is hard and could be derived to get oil or milk to use in cooking too.
Besides the edible parts of the coconut fruit, other parts are also useful, for some examples:
- The fiber layer of the coconut fruit is used in producing rope, carpet, and other stuffs. It’s also use to mix with fertilizer to plant vegetable or bonsai.
- The latex from the coconut flower could be fermented to make wine.
- The wood from coconut stem is used in decoration.
Coconut milk
Coconut milk is a popular ingredient of Southeast Asia, it was added to enrich flavor of many dishes, both main and deserts.
Coconut milk is derived from the coconut meat. The coconut water could be added to the white flesh (which is grated) and then extracted to get milk. Generally, the hot water is used instead of the coconut water, for the coconut water after be taken out of the fruit will be easily to be fermented.
This milk is used in many dishes like curies, sweet soup, ice cream, deserts…The fat contained (about 24 %) in coconut milk creates a special taste to the dishes which it joined.
Coconut oil
The coconut meat extracting could also get coconut oil. Although this oil is edible and commonly used in cooking especially in south Asia, there are health advises against the using it as food, for it contains high level of saturated fat which is believed to increase the cholesterol in our blood.
However, coconut oil is still considered safe and effective to skin and hair as a moisturizer.
.
