Gardening with Wilson

All along I thought the sea coconut IS the double coconut. Common names of plants can be a quite misleading at times. It has caused much confusion for me and I hope my earlier post on this blog did not confuse or mislead anyone. My ignorance surfaced recently when I received a comment on the double coconut post. The comment had some questions that were asked by the visitor that made me question about the info I wrote then. That sets me off on a journey to find the answers to them.

In this post, I attempt to clarify and to inform from some of the new things I discovered about the double and sea coconuts. The pictures you see below are actually taken from things that I rushed to the supermarket and pharmacy to buy! Many thanks to a wise friend whom I have been corresponding via email who offered me a guiding light that led me to the answers. Do read and let me know if I got anything wrong!!!

The cough syrup which I thought is made from the double coconut.

First and foremost, I have always thought that the cough syrup that we can buy here locally in Singapore is made from the double coconut. The seed of the real double coconut has been used in traditional Chinese medicine and is known as Semen Lodoiceae maldivicae. Slices of this seed are traditionally boiled in soup to yield a decoction to treat treat chronic cough and for arrest bleeding.

The product insert confirms the fact that it is not made from the double coconut!

My belief had been shakened and my doubt made me go take a closer look at the product insert. On the piece of paper that came with the bottle, the cough syrup is described to contain the following – tincture of Ipecacuanha root, Scilla root syrup, Wild Cherry syrup, Licorice root extact, Tolu syrup. No Semen Lodoiceae maldivicae in sight! Apparently, the sea coconut is used as a trademark of the cough syrup!

The canned ‘sea coconut’ dessert.

The next thing I wanted to know more is the so-called sea coconut dessert that we enjoy eating. The soft, translucent slices of the ‘sea coconut’ are sold canned inside concentrated brown coloured sugar syrup. This is not made from the seed of the double coconut. Instead, it is made from the kernels of another majestic palm, Borassus flabellifer, which is also known as Toddy Palm, which is closely related to the double coconut.

The dessert is made from the kernels of the Toddy Palm!

The Toddy palm is native to this part of the world and is a very large, attractive palm that is suitable for landscaping very large gardens.  It can reach to a height of 30 m, with leaves that can reach 3 meters in diameter across. It bears clusters of large black-coloured fruits. When opened, the inside of the semi-mature fruit reveals three seeds that are each encapsulated in a translucent, white-coloured, jelly-like kernel. The kernel is removed from the seed and sliced to give rings, which are then are canned in sugar syrup.

The toddy palm kernel sliced to give a ring.