One of the major uses of palm trees is the tapping of sap from it to be sold as a beverage. In the traditional method, the sap from coconut trees – known as neera – is collected in open earthen pots, leading to its contamination and its fermentation.

Now, an invention by the Kasaragod-based Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) has helped to get over these problems, helping farmers to get quality sap.

‘Coconut sap chiller’, CPCRI’s invention of collecting neera from coconut spadix under cool condition using ice box, has been granted a patent by Intellectual Property of India.

KB Hebbar, Head (Plant Physiology, Biochemistry and Post-Harvest Technology) at CPCRI, told BusinessLine that he – along with Augustine Joseph, a farmer-entrepreneur from Udupi – had applied for a patent as inventors in 2014 and it wasgranted on July 30 this year.

Mentioning the efforts behind the achievement, he said this invention was a breakthrough technology for the collection of hygienic and unfermented neera as early as 2013.

How traditional method works

In the traditional method, neera is collected in open earthen pots with lime coating from the inside. However, the sap thus collected remains unhygienic as it suffers from contamination from insects, ants, pollen, dust etc, and it gets partially fermented under ambient conditions.

As a result, the sap is mostly used for the preparation of alcoholic drink – toddy. He said that coconut tapping was under excise control in many States due to non-availability of scientific collection methods.

Start of a new process

Hebbar said, the collection initially involved attaching a PVC adaptor to the cut end of the spadix, and a pipe draining the sap to a container housed in the ice box with ice cubicles.

When this technology was commercialised to Augustine Joseph, he found that neera collected during the day time was getting partially fermented due to its exposure to sunlight during the flow through the pipe. The ice in the box lasted only six-eight hours, whereas it needed to last at least 12-14 hours in between the two tappings followed in a day.

Considering this, a need was felt for a customised box where the spadix to be tapped would be inside the box, and neera from the cut end would directly trickle to the container placed inside the box. CPCRI and Augustine, who is a technology transferee from CPCRI, jointly worked and developed a box from locally available material which was later called a ‘coconut sap chiller’.

Hebbar said it is a simple PVC pipe base modified like a box. The box is insulated externally by thermocol and rexin materials having an inlet (for spadix insertion), and a cap at the top end for inserting ice cubes and extracting filled neera collection container.

Quality remains intact

As the box is completely closed from all the sides, there is no chance for entry of insects and ants, and also the ice cube lasts for 12-13 hours and the temperature inside is maintained at around 4°C.

He said the neera collected at 4°C is in its original form and retained all its qualities intact. It is not only a very good health drink but also easily amenable for processing into various value-added products.

He said the physical, chemical, biochemical, sensory and microbial analysis conducted on sap’s sugar, protein, amino acids, vitamins, phenolics, antioxidants, minerals etc. found that the neera collected by the chiller is far superior to not only above parameters but also in terms of taste, flavour aroma etc. from neera collected by traditional method.

Following this, the sap collected by chiller method is named as ‘Kalparas’ and registered under trademark as a non-alcoholic beverage. Hebbar said it is ideal to be sold as a fresh beverage or nutritive drink because of its nutritional qualities.

So far, CPCRI has commercialised this technology to 56 entrepreneurs and coconut producer companies in the country.

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