Medicinal coconut?
By Manny Piñol
Rare Purple Coconut Variety
Grown By 'Arbularyo' Found
The story of a rare coconut whose nuts are purple instead of the common green or yellow started spreading in North Cotabato early this year when an old farmer who is also known as a "Mananambal" or village medicine man gave some mature nuts to a plant nursery owner in Kidapawan City.
The story goes that this Purple Coconut variety, known locally as "Tapul" or purple, was planted by the father of the Arbularyo but the source of the original seed nut could not be validated.
The Arbularyo only has nine standing palms all of which are fruiting but whose nuts he had solely used for his traditional medicinal practice.
He had not really propagated the variety maybe because the nine standing palms were enough to supply what he needed for his traditional medicine practice
Last week, the nursery operator, Cyrus Laus, brought to my farm two odd looking coconuts whose outside layer or exocarp was purplish which I placed in a seed bag.
While he knew that the nuts were rare, he did not really know what to do with these.
He said he gave some of the nuts to a coconut farmer leader, Leo Loredo of Pigcawayan town.
Yesterday, he brought 10 more mature nuts and I decided to open one of the nuts to satisfy my curiosity.
Unlike the common coconuts, the Purple Coconut has rough exocarps with a thin shell or endocarp and thick white meat.
I took photos of the strange-looking nuts and sent these to a former official of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Tommy Jatos, who forwarded these to Deputy Administrator Ramon Rivera.
Rivera, who used to head the PCA Research Center in San Ramon, Zamboanga City which hosts the PCA's Gene Bank, said this could be an undiscovered local variety of coconut which PCA does not have in its gene bank.
I will send to the PCA Research Center in Zamboanga City two of the nuts I received yesterday for their research and validation.
Aside from the rare purple colored nuts, what I found remarkable with this new coconut variety was the thick meat which could produce a lot of oil.
I have extracted oil from the nut which I opened yesterday and I will send the sample to a laboratory to determine whether there is a basis for the belief of the Arbularyo that the "Lana" or oil taken from the "Niyog nga Tapul" or Purple Coconut really has medicinal properties.
This discovery of a rare coconut variety led me to conclude that our country has a lot of still undiscovered agricultural gems which if properly nurtured could improve our people's lives.
#BountiesOfPhilippineCountryside!
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