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How does coconut milk get inside the coconut in the first place? Jeremiah |
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There’s an issue here because coconut milk is actually slightly different to coconut water. It’s coconut water that you find inside a coconut. That’s not water that’s got in from the outside, it’s created by the coconut itself. It’s actually what we call the endosperm of the coconut plant. That’s the stuff that gives the nutrition for the developing seed, a bit like the flesh of a banana. As the fruit ripens the coconut water gets converted into the solid fruit that you find in there. If you have an unripe coconut the water will be quite sweet and very nice. The riper it gets the less pleasant it gets to drink. |
July 2008 |
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Jeremiah asked the Naked Scientists:
Can you please explain how coconut water gert into the fruit and what is its function and uses?
What do you think?
- Jerryade - 19th Jul 08
When coconuts mature, what will be the white flesh starts as a thin layer of clear jelly. The jelly gets thicker and more dense as the coconut gets older until the dense meat that we are after is all present, lining the shell.
See the whole discussion | Make a commentWhile this is happening, the juice (milk) which is mostly water (from the ground via the tree's phloem cells) starts off a bit cloudy but clears and becomes sweeter (through photosynthesis)as the coconut matures. The protective inner shell develops simultaneously as does the fibrous outer shell that we don't tend to see very often but is useful as a floor covering when woven. - blakestyger - 19th Jul 08
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