'Pili Nut' The pride of the Bikolanos

uploaded by danesller0127 November 17, 2008 at 02:21 pm
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'Pili Nut' The pride of the Bikolanos by danesller0127

The Pili Nut is a tropical tree, and indiginous to the Philippines, its center of diversity is the Bicol Region, where it's a priority crop, also have spread to the provinces of Catanduanes, Masbate, and Southern Quezon area. The bulk of the raw nuts are are supplied from wild stands in the mountain around Sorsogon, Albay, and Camarines Sur, in the Bicol region.

In my province in Sorsogon, the nuts concoction is called "nilanta" similar to steam -- it will be boiled in a lukewarm water for about 10 to 15 minutes, to soften the ripe pulp, when ready and served; seasoned it with soy sauce, bagoong or kuyog (padas) and siling labuyo (chili), match it with cooked rice.

Young shoots are edible used for cooking and making green salads. Pili nut kernel is crispy and delicious, emulsion from crushed kedrnels has been used by the natives in early days as substitute for infant's milk it's used also for making medicinal ointment. Some says, that the nuts is an "Aprhrodisiac."

Other uses; resin-rich wood makes its an excellent firewood, the oil from the pulp has been used for manufacturing of soap and other products, an the hard stoney shell makes for excellent fuel.

Other Pili products, are candies...

Origin: Philippines; abundant and wild in Southern Luzon, and parts of Visayas and Mindanao in low and medium primary forests.

The Pili nut (Canarium ovatum), one of 600 species in the family Burseraceae, is native to the Philippines and is abundant and wild in southern Luzon, and in parts of Visayas and Mindanao.

Trees of Canarium ovatum are attractive symmetrically shaped evergreens, averaging 20 m tall with resinous wood and resistance to strong wind. C. ovatum is dioecious, with flowers borne on cymose inflorescence at the leaf axils of young shoots. As in papaya and rambutan, functional hermaphrodites exist in pili. Pollination is by insects. Flowering of pili is frequent and fruits ripen through a prolonged period of time. The ovary contains three locules, each with two ovules, most of the time only one ovule develops (Chandler 1958).

Pili fruit is a drupe, 4 to 7 cm long, 2.3 to 3.8 cm in diameter, and weighs 15.7 to 45.7 g. The skin (exocarp) is smooth, thin, shiny, and turns purplish black when the fruit ripens; the pulp (mesocarp) is fibrous, fleshy, and greenish yellow in color, and the hard shell (endocarp) within protects a normally dicotyledonous embryo. The basal end of the shell (endocarp) is pointed and the apical end is more or less blunt; between the seed and the hard shell (endocarp) is a thin, brownish, fibrous seed coat developed from the inner layer of the endocarp. This thin coat usually adheres tightly to the shell and/or the seed. Much of the kernel weight is made up of the cotyledons, which are about 4.1 to 16.6% of the whole fruit; it is composed of approximately 8% carbohydrate, 11.5 to 13.9% protein, and 70% fat. Kernels from some trees may be bitter, fibrous or have a turpentine odor.