190 PHILIPPINE PALMS 
that the general annual average per tree under good condi- 
tions is about 400 liters. Gibbs says that fresh sap probably 
contains about 16.5 per cent sucrose. As with other palm saps, 
fermentation commences almost as soon as the sap drips from 
the wounded inflorescence. The partly fermented sap, or tuba 
as it is locally known, is extensively utilized by the Filipinos 
as a beverage. In many parts of the Philippines, an exten- 
sive industry has grown up in the fermentation of tuba and 
the distillation of its alcohol content, this product being 
known in the Philippines as dlak, drak, or bino (the last a 
corruption of Spanish ‘‘vino’’). Some idea of the extent of the 
industry may be gained from the fact that in the year 1910 a 
total of nearly 700,000 pesos in internal revenue was collected 
on alcohol from this source, and the production of coconut-tuba 
alcohol presents a steady annual increase. 
If acidic fermentation be allowed to follow alcoholic fermen- 
tation in coconut tuba, the result will be vinegar, which is 
said to be of good quality. Care must be taken, however, to 
prevent putrefaction of the sap, to guard against which some 
bark rich in tannin is usually added to tuba destined for the 
manufacture of vinegar. Coconut-tuba vinegar is manufac- 
tured in the Philippines only to a limited extent for local use. 
As with the sweet, unfermented saps of the buri, nipa, and 
sugar palms, fresh coconut-palm sap can be evaporated to a 
syrup or sugar. Sugar, however, is but rarely, if at all, manu- 
factured in the Philippines from the coconut-palm sap. In 
gathering the sap for this purpose, fermentation must be pre- 
vented or inhibited, as in other palm saps. 
Locally, large quantities of the nuts are utilized for food and 
for extracting oil for domestic purposes. The unripe as well 
as the mature fruits are utilized in various ways for food. 
Some trees produce abnormal fruits, known as makapuno 
(from Tagalog pund = full). In these the whole interior of 
the nut is occupied by a soft, rather firm tissue quite different 
in texture from the hard flesh of normal nuts. These abnor- 
mal fruits are produced on the same tree with normal ones, 
and will not germinate. Only a small percentage of coconut 
trees in a given area will produce the makapuno nuts, which 
are valued as a delicacy and which command a much higher 
price than the normal fruits, often selling at a price ten times 
as great as the latter. 
A commercial product of the coconut that is but slightly 
utilized in the Philippines is the fiber prepared from the husk 
