Abstract
Sago palm, Metroxylon sagu and Metroxylon rumphii, has long been utilized in Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Indonesia as a staple food of the native inhabitants.
An unusual feature of the tree is that it accumulates a large quantity of starch in its trunks. People extract starch and consume it in various forms by simple process to make sago pearl, sago lempeng, sago melong, sago randang and sago bagea etc. or simply gelatinize the starch to make papeda-starch paste.
An intense attention has been paid to sago palm from the world since the 1st International Symposium of sago—The Equatorial Swamp as a Natural Resource—in 1967 in Sarawak, Malaysia. In many occasions, sago becomes a center of the interest of neglected carbohydrate resources produced in the tropical area.
In 1976, the author participated in the 1st Sago Symposium in Sarawak and recently visited Borneo Island and Papua New Guinea as a member of the Sago Exploring Co-operation Team of Japan International Cooperation Agency.
In this paper, the situation of the growing of sago palm, production and utilization of sago starch in Borneo Island, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, and the possibility of considering these trees as potential resources of biomass production is discussed.
