Sains Malaysiana 40(12)(2011): 1407–1412

Biological and Ethnobotanical Characteristics of Nipa Palm (Nypa fructicans Wurmb.): A Review

(Ciri-Ciri Biologi dan Etnobotani Nipah (Nypa fruticans Wurmb.) – Suatu Tinjauan)

Koji Tsuji & Leocadio S. Sebastian*

Bioversity International Regional Office for Asia, The Pacific and Oceania, P.O. Box 236

UPM Post Office, Serdang 43400 Selangor D.E. Malaysia

Mohd. Nor Faizal Ghazalli, Zulhairil Ariffin, Mohd. Shukor Nordin & Maya Izar Khaidizar

Strategic Resources Research Center, Malaysian Agricultural and Development Institute

P.O. Box 12301, General Post Office, 50774 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Mohammad Ehsan Dulloo

Bioversity International Headquarters, Via dei Tre Denari 472/a

00057 Maccarese Rome, Italy

Received: 7 July 2010 / Accepted: 11 November 2010

ABSTRACT

Nipa (Nypa fruticans) is one of the most widely distributed and useful palm in the mangrove forests in the South, Southeast Asia and Oceania. Its distribution area is known to be larger in ancient time than at present, as evidenced by its fossils found in North America, South America, Egypt and Europe. Nipa has a wide diversity of use. Traditionally it is used as roof materials, cigarette wrapper, medicine and its sap is fermented to alcohol. Recently, research on nipa has focused on its potential use as a biofuel crop because it has several advantages compared with other biofuel-alcohol crops. For example it has high alcohol content, no competition with other crop for agricultural land and no bagasse disposal problem. In spite of such usefulness, scientific reports on biology of nipa are limited. Information on genetic diversity, cytogenetics and chemical composition are lacking for nipa plant. On the other hand, morphological characters of nipa have been described in many reports. This paper attempted to provide a general review of the nipa plant based on available literatures.

Keywords: Biological characteristics; economic aspect; geographical distribution; Nypa fruticans; traditional utilization

ABSTRAK

Nipah merupakan sejenis spesies palma yang tumbuh subur di kawasan hutan bakau di Selatan, Asia Tenggara dan Oceania. Pada suatu ketika, spesies nipah telah ditemui di kawasan taburan yang luas, dan ini dibuktikan dengan penemuan fosilnya di Amerika Utara, Amerika Selatan, Mesir dan Eropah. Nipah mempunyai pelbagai kegunaan dalam amalan masyarakat tradisi seperti penggunaan daunnya sebagai atap rumah, pembalut rokok dan perubatan tradisi serta bahan api biologi yang terhasil daripada penapaian niranya. Penyelidikan spesies nipah kini lebih tertumpu kepada potensinya sebagai tanaman bahan api biologi kerana pelbagai kelebihan seperti kandungan alkohol dalam niranya yang tinggi, kurangnya persaingan penggunaan tanah pertanian dengan tanaman lain dan tiada sisa hampas untuk dilupuskan. Di sebalik pelbagai kebaikan dan potensi spesies ini, laporan saintifik mengenainya masih kurang diterbitkan. Maklumat mengenai kepelbagaian, sitogenetik dan komposisi kimia nipah juga masih kurang dilaporkan. Namun demikian, terdapat banyak laporan yang menerangkan maklumat morfologi nipah. Kertas ini memaparkan tinjauan dan pandangan umum mengenai spesies nipah berdasarkan daripada laporan lain.

Kata kunci: Aspek ekonomi; ciri biologi; kegunaan tradisi; Nypa fruticans; taburan geografi

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*Corresponding author; email: l.sebastian@cgiar.org