It has been traditionally practiced to produce palm sugar
and palm wine using sap obtained by tapping the inflorescence
of various species of palms including Arenga pinnata,
Borassus flabellifer, Cocos nucifera, Nypa fruticans and oil palm [8].
Among these palm species, oil palm is considered to produce
much smaller amount of tapped sap, or low sugar yield [9]. Oil
palm sap was reported to contain approximately 11% sugars
with sucrose as a major component accounting for approximately
90% of total sugar [10]. Meanwhile, it has been reported
that the 75% methanol extracts of the dried oil palm trunk
(OPT) fiber contains 4.9%e7.8% sugars, which correspond to
2.1%e3.4% sugars in the sap assuming that moisture content
of OPT is 70% [11]. The ratio of sugars in the methanol extract
of the pulverized trunk is significantly different from the one
in the tapped sap.
Therefore, efficient ways for utilizing oil palm trunks is
desired for ideal oil palm plantation and sustainable palm
oil industry.