Benefits of Sago, Ranging from Staple Food to the Textile Industry

Sago is a staple food for people in eastern Indonesia, especially in Papua and Maluku. This food is obtained from processing tropical palm tree trunks or sago Metroxylon. Aside from being a main food, sago can also be used as an ingredient for making a variety of delicious snacks. Sago flour, for example, can be processed into balls, pasta, or pancake cakes. In addition, sago can also be processed with other ingredients to form a pudding cake.

Nutrient Content in Sago

Sago is one of the staple foods of people in Indonesia, and has good nutrition for the body. This is because the nutritional content in sago is relatively complete. In sago, there are quite a lot of carbohydrates. In addition, this material also has protein, vitamins, and minerals, although the amount is not much. In 100 grams of dried sago, there are 94 grams of carbohydrates, 0.2 grams of protein, 0.5 grams of fiber, 10 mg of calcium, and 1.2 mg of iron. Calories produced 100 grams of sago is 355 calories. Although it contains fat, carotene, and ascorbic acid, the amount is so small that it is often ignored.

Utilization of Sago other than as a Staple Food

Here are some of the benefits of sago, in addition to being a staple food:

• Glucose making material

One study mentioned that sago flour in Malaysia was used as a basic material for producing glucose. Considering that more than 90 percent of sago is carbohydrate, this is very possible.

• Provides energy for physical activity

Other uses of sago were also used to delay fatigue during physical activity. A study even revealed, the combination of sago and protein from soy is useful to strengthen the body's stamina when doing physical activity. This study compares the consumption of a mixture of sago and soy protein, with the consumption of carbohydrates in the form of supplements. The results show that the combination of sago and soy protein can delay the appearance of fatigue in people who do sports activities with high intensity.

• Food ingredients and animal feed

As animal feed, sago is one of the ingredients that is easily obtained, inexpensive, and has good nutritional content for livestock. Not only in the livestock sector, sago is also widely used in the food industry. Sago flour is often used as a thickening agent, thickener, to add texture to various cakes and snacks.

• Textile making material

Furthermore about the benefits of sago, this foodstuff also has a significant role in the textile industry. Sago is used as a fiber binder, making the machine easier to spin. The ability of sago to bind bundles of fibers will facilitate the process of making fabric as desired. If we look carefully, new cloth or clothing usually contains the remnants of sago that will disappear after washing. Not only that, now sago has also been used as an environmentally friendly plastic material (biodegradable).

The current use of sago is not only as a staple food. The high utilization of sago should be accompanied by good environmental maintenance, so that the plant can still be conserved.