Palms are believed to be among the oldest flowering plants in the world (Redhead 1989). For centuries, many palm species have been tapped throughout the tropical world in order to produce fresh juice (sweet toddy), fermented drinks (toddy, wine, arak), syrup (“honey”), brown sugar (jaggery) or refined sugar.

A Tamil classical poem (Tala Vilasam) composed by Arunachalam in Tamil Nadu is entirely dedicated to the glory of this tree and enumerates 801 articles made from its various parts (Rangaswami  1977; Kovoor  1983). Another outstanding example is the coconut palm, for which every part is used. This tree is called in India “Tree of Heaven”, “Mankind’s greatest provider in the tropics”, “Tree of life”, etc. (Rangaswami  1977). There are at least 1,000 uses for the coconut palm (Dissanayake  1986).

“Neera [sap extracted from Borassus flabellifer] can be converted into Jaggery sweet as honey itself. This Jaggery is superior to cane Jaggery. Cane Jaggery is sweet, but Palm Jaggery is sweet and delicious;. Palm Jaggery / Palm sugar gives mineral salts too.