Talk:Sago

History of Sago Trade

There was a history of trading the sago. It was mentioned in Sejarah Melayu manuscript that told the trade between Malacca (ancient kingdom of 15th - 16th century in Malaysia) and China. I believe, since then, the sago was introduced into the world modern trade.

Thanks.

Master of Books (talk) 07:36, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Tapioca or Sago

These were in the "other uses" section. I have put them here in case they were there in error. Tapioca starch is also used as a key material input in the paper, plywood and textile industries and is used to make adhesives, paper, ethanol, high fructose glucose syrup, maltodextrin, cyclodextrin and monosodium glutamate.

Tapioca starch can be converted further through fermentation for producing biodegradable plastic and ethanol (gasohol). Its residual biomass can similarly be used as a feedstock for the production of power and heat.

Roidhrigh, 10/11/2013

What type of sugar is in Sago?

The article does not mention types or proportions of the type of sugars in Sago. Is it sucrose? The sugars are fructose, glucose and sucrose in some varieties studied.

Tropical

Sago Palm is widely grown in Tropical countries.

which part is used?

...washed carefully to leach out natural toxins, and the portion that is removed during washing is dried and cooked.

If the toxins are leached out, doesn't that mean the portion that is removed during washing is poisonous? So if I've got it right, we need to add a "not". I.e. "the portion that is not removed during washing is dried and cooked."

Singkong2005 00:22, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

In preparing starch from Metroxylon sagu, the pith of the trunk is puverized and washed to release the starch granules. The starch and fibrous waste are separated by sieving. The starch is recovered by sedimentation or by centrifuging. Several modernized procesing plants producing 500-1000t/m of dry starch are found in Sarawak Malaysia. There are over 50 semi-modernized sago starch processing factories (50-400 t/m dry starch) in Riau, Indonesia. No toxin has ever been mentioned by locals and the sago factory operators in Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia is producing commercially over 100,000 tons dry sago starch per year and Malaysia about half that quantity.

(I guess the toxin referred in 'sago' above may be mistaken... cassava starch is also sometimes called "sago" and some varieties of cassava contains toxin which is normally removed by washing or heat during processing)

It's much better & clearer now. --Singkong2005 04:32, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Sago from Metroxylon versus Cycads

Given the much wider usage of sago from Metroxylon rather than from cycads, I personally feel that cycad sago should be treated in a separate sub-section to itself rather than integrated into the Metroxylon description. I will wait for others opinions. Arjuna 02:47, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, it should be separated out as much as possible - MPF 10:04, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Split it. If a bit more can be said about the cycad-type sago, it should really get a separate article. —Pengo 14:06, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Begun. Starch extracted from cycads formerly was made commercially in the United States, where it was called Florida arrowroot. --Una Smith (talk) 05:58, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Huh?

One hundred grams of dry sago yields 355 calories, including an average of 94 grams of carbohydrate, 0.2 grams of protein, 0.5 grams of dietary fiber, 10mg of calcium, 1.2mg of iron, and negligible amounts of fat, carotene, thiamine, and ascorbic acid. A larger, loaf-sized portion of sago would thus yield about 11.5 grams of protein, 3.1 grams of fiber, and 3.1 grams of fat, making sago a relatively nutritious staple.

Does anyone think that math is a bit wrong? That the ratios of protein, fiber, and probably fat change very significantly when eaten in loaf-sized portions?

As the one who added that section (basically adapting it from a book on New Guinea cultures), I agree that doesn't make sense. I'll try to revise it soon. Arjuna 20:15, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Calculating the amount of sago required to give 11.5g protein from the first figures given of 0.2g protein per 100g, the 'loaf size' would be almost 6 kilograms, although the numbers for fibre and other nutrients would be much higher.

The part about sago being a relatively nutritious staple is also wrong. Protein-energy malnutrition is rife in areas where it is consumed as a staple with few alternate sources of protein. Compare with around 11-13g protein per 100g for wheat and around 6g per rice, for example. I deleted the sentence. Gamsarah

Merging Sabudana article

Reason for suggested merger:

1. Wikipedia is not a dictionary
2. Sabudana article is stub. It can be expanded, but is likely to have large overlap over this article.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.61.184.108 (talk) 20:49, 8 December 2006 (UTC).

I strongly disagree. Sabudana should be separate from sago, as each comes from an entirely different category of plants and the use of each is culturally and geographically quite distinct. Arjuna 23:54, 8 December 2006 (UTC) (Revised Arjuna 04:13, 31 January 2007 (UTC))

I also disagree -- I believe sabudana is a particular kind of product, made using sago. Saying sabudana should be merged with sago would be akin to saying that cheese should be merged into milk. FashionNugget 03:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Is sabudana made from sago (pith of sago plant) or from tapioca i.e. the tuber of the cassava plant? If latter, it would be incorrect to be merged with the Sago article. Does anyone know for sure how sabudana is made?

Depending what you read, sabudana uses any one of 3 possible starches: pearl tapioca, pearl sago (sago from palm trees, the sago that is the focus of this article), and starch from cycads (confusingly also called sago). There is a 4th possibility as well: the starch is tapioca or sago (true palm), but due to the common use of "sago palm" to refer to a cycad, the starch is misattributed to the cycad. --Una Smith (talk) 05:55, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

The sabudana article now redirects to this article, where its text has been merged, but further disambiguation may be needed. --Una Smith (talk) 05:59, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Taxobox needed

If this article is intended to be about both sago the food and sago the plant from which it is derived (Metroxylon sagu), then this article needs a taxobox (I am not familiar enough with botany to be able to fill in the family tree) -- otherwise a separate article for M. sagu should be created. For consistency within Wikipedia, it would also be advisable for this article (or M. sagu if appropriate) to have a similar format to other major food crops such as wheat, maize, rice, and even sago cycad. --jchristopher 06:33, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

NPOV vs. cleanup

I removed the NPOV tag because the comment about references to cycad sago are not properly described as a POV issue but rather one of cleanup over definitions. I too am dissatisfied with the inclusion of cycad sago, since this comes from a completely different class of plants. However, I don't really know of a good solution other than to create two separate articles one on sago, and one on cycad sago. I would agree with this solution, but don't have time to get to it now. Cheers, Arjuna (talk) 03:29, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I think the topic needs some research, before editing. How many attributions of sago (the starch) to a cycad source are due to confusion over the name "sago palm"? Most instances of "sago palm" refer to the cycad, not the palm, but the palm is the (major?) commercial source of sago.

Palms:

• swamp sago (Metroxylon sagu)
• sugar palm (Arenga pinnuta)
• Metroxylon rumphii

Cycads: The florists' sago palm is not a true palm but a cycad of the American genus Zamia. Z. floridana, called wild sago or coontie, yields Florida arrowroot.

See also PMID 18490618 !

--Una Smith (talk) 05:03, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Gluten

Please, someone say whether this is a gluten-free product. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.2.73.157 (talk) 10:51, 20 June 2009 (UTC)