HAWAII AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 

 HONOLULU, HAWAII 



Under the supervision of the 

 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 53 



Washington, D. C. July 11. 1924 



THE HAWAIIAN TREE FERN AS A COMMERCIAL 

 SOURCE OF STARCH 



J. C. PvIppekton, Chemist 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



Botanical description 



Occurrence in Hawaii_ 



Studies of methods of propagation 

 and growth 



Page 



1 



2 

 3 



Chemical composition of the core 



Physical properties of tree-fern 



starches , 



Starch making from the tree fern 



Summary 



Page 

 9 



10 

 13 

 15 



INTRODUCTION 



Many generations ago the natives of Hawaii discovered the value 

 of the tree fern as a source of food. They found that they could 

 use the tree fern in place of the taro and the sweet potato, which 

 constituted their favorite and staple food crops ; and, likewise, that 

 they could live indefinitely upon a diet of tree fern and wild game 

 when they were defeated in battle and driven from the seashore to 

 the mountains. Usually, they stripped the trunk of the bark 1 and 

 baked the starchy core in an underground oven. It is not un- 

 likely that the natives obtained starch from the tree fern, since they 

 were familiar with the art of extracting it from the arrowroot. 



Many attempts have been made within recent years to produce 

 tree-fern starch on a commercial scale. None of these proved suc- 

 cessful, however, due to insufficient capital for the proper develop- 

 ment of the product, until 1920 when tree-fern starch was success- 

 fully manufactured and appeared on the local markets in a form 

 suitable for use as food and for laundry purposes. 



Although some feared that the new industry would soon destroy 

 the beautiful tree-fern forests, the Hawaii Experiment Station re- 

 ceived many requests to aid in developing it. To satisfy those who 

 looked unfavorably upon the industry, the station made a pre- 

 liminary investigation to determine the effect on the forests and on 

 water conservation of cutting over tree-fern areas. As a result of 



1 In this publication the word " bark " is used to describe all that portion, of the tree- 

 fern trunk except the central starch-containing core. 



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