Exploring the nutritional, health and economic potential of palmyrah fruit pulp

Abstract

The Palmyrah is one of the most important commercial crops that grow very slowly indigenously it takes from 15 to 30 years to bear distributed in the northeast part of Sri Lanka and is referred to as the tree of life with nearly 800 uses including foods, beverages, handicrafts, fiber, fodder, medicinal, cosmetics and timber. Among the various edible uses of the palm, the fruit could be used for the major economic potential of Sri Lanka. This review aims to give a broad spectrum of different value-added products, and their health benefits that can be derived from the palmyra fruit. Palmyrah fruit could be used for value addition as in dry fruit leather and fresh or preserved pulp preparation. Dry fruit leather is used as such or for the preparation of panipanattu, chocobar, while that of fruit pulp for the preparations of drinks, cordial, jelly, jam, wine, sauce, ice cream, yoghurt, toffee, wattalappam, palmite, bread spread and coconut milk added drink is used. The fruit is nutritionally rich and offers several health benefits, including antidiabetic, cholesterol-lowering, weight reduction, antioxidant, antimicrobial, wound healing, anticancer, constipation prevention, and mosquito larvicidal activities. Palmyrah fruit can provide a supplementary income source for those who dependent on palmyrah resources.