Health Benefits of Tender Coconut Water

Among all fruit juices, tender coconut water is the most cleanest, sweetest,  nutritious and healthiest drink. It has sugar, fat, magnesium, calcium, chlorine, sulphur, phosphorus, vitamin C & B complex in it. By taking 2 cups of coconut water daily, during summer season, urine will be freely passing and body heat will be reduced. Diseases caused by heat is controlled by coconut water keeping the body cool.  Women visiting beauty parlour can clean their face with hot water mixed with small quantity of coconut water. Blackspots on the face will vanish and the face will begin glowing.

It is one of the best natural drinks Mother Nature has packed for us within the kernel of coconut, this natural water is not only tasteful refreshing drink but can be considered as one of the best natural health drinks from herbal world. Here are some health benefits of coconut water:-
 Health Benefits of Coconut Water

1.  keeps the body cool and at the proper temperature.
2.  It is Antibacterial. Contains  monolaurin, an antiviral, antibacterial and antiprozoal monoglyceride that is used to kill lipid-coated viruses such as HIV, Herpes, cytomegalovirus, flu and various pathogenic bacteria.

3. Coconut water is great at reducing vomiting. People who have typhoid, malaria, fevers or other ailments that are known to induce vomiting drink coconut water to settle the stomach. As such, coconut water is also a good thing to drink during a hangover.
4. Coconut helps in keeping check over urinary infections. It is very effective in treating kidney and  urethral stones.
5. Coconut water is very effective in treating intestinal disturbances in infants. It kills intestinal worms.
 6. Making coconut a part of the daily diet is recommended for those who have been troubled by kidney stones. When taken along with medication, it helps break up the stones, making it easier for the body to push them out.
7. Helps to lose weight because the drink increases the rate of metabolism, thus aiding weight loss

The water of fresh tender coconut (king coconut or 'Thembili' and 'Weware') which is the liquid endosperm is the most nutritious wholesome beverage  nature has provided for the people of the tropics to fight the sultry heat. It has a caloric value of 17.4 per 100 gm. 

According to Ayurveda "It is unctuous, sweet, increasing semen, promoting digestion and clearing the urinary path." 

Medicinal properties of Tender Coconut Water (T.C.W.) 

Some of the medicinal properties of T.C.W. reported are: 

1. Good for feeding infants suffering from intestinal disturbances. 

2. Oral rehydration medium. 

3. Contains organic compounds containing growth promoting properties. 

4. Keeps the body cool. 

5. Application on the body prevents prickly heat and summer boils and subsides the rashes caused by small pox, chicken pox and measles etc. 

6. Presence of saline and albumin makes it a good drink in cholera cases. 

7. Excellent tonic for the old and the sick. 

8. Diuretic (a substance which tends to increase flow of urine). 

9. Can be injected intravenously in emergency cases such as cholera and dysentery when other pyrogen-free fluids are not available. 

10. Can be used as a blood plasma substitute because it is sterile, pyrogen - free and does not produce heat, and does not destroy blood cells. 

11. Aids the quick absorption of drugs and make their peak concentration in the blood easier

by its electrolyte effect. 

12. Urinary antiseptic and eliminates poisons in case of mineral poisoning. '

'Fluid of Life' 

Tender coconut water is the natural isotonic beverage with almost the same level of electrolyte balance as we have in our blood. It is the 'fluid of life' says Chief of FAO's Agricultural and Post Harvest Management Service, Morton Satin. 

A word of warning 

When T. C. W. is injected intravenously, in view of its high potassium level (290 mg%) it may cause hyperkalemia (high level of serum potassium) in patients with poor kidney function.  In cases of patients with dysentery and cholera and other types of severe diarrhoea, in whom, serum potassium level may be low, T.C.W. can be used both orally and intravenously.

T.C.W. has been used intravenously to treat diarrhoea both in Sri Lanka and abroad by various researchers. 

As mentioned earlier, T.C.W. is best avoided in patients with hyperkalaemia such as renal failure, acute adrenal insufficiency and in patients with low urine output due to haemolysis following blood transfusions and in case of viper bite in whom serum potassium is usually very high.

Use of i.v. Tender Coconut Water in the treatment of Diarrhoea 

Prof. K. Rajasuriya and colleagues were the first to use i.v. T.C.W. to treat diarrhoea in Sri Lanka (CMJ, Vol. 2, 1954, 255-261) Prof. C.C. De Silva used intravenous T.C.W. in the treatment of infantile diarrhoea (Paediatric International Rome, 19, 1958, 225) Dr. (Mrs) N. P. Fernando used T.C.W. as i.v. rehydrating fluid in malnourished children with diarrhoea (J.C.H., Vol 4, 1955, 57-59). 

Tender coconut water has been used in other areas of the world where intravenous solutions cannot be obtained. Japanese have used T.C.W. intravenously in Sumatra in World War I. Pradera et al have used intravenous T.C.W. for paediatric patients in Havana, Cuba without any serious reactions (Am. J. Dis. Child, 64, 1942, 977). 

Dr. Ben Eisman at Barnes Hospital, St. Louis used fresh intravenous T.C.W. in 21 patients without evidence of any serious reactions (B. Eisman, A.M.A. Archives of Surgery, 68, 1954, 167). 

Composition of Fresh Tender Coconut Water 

Sugars in the form of glucose and fructose form an important constituent of T.C.W. The concentration of sugar steadily increases from 1.5% to about 5.5% in the early months of maturation and this slowly falls to about 2% at the stage of full maturity.  Sucrose which is a non-reducing sugar, appears in the late stages and this increases with maturity. So tender king coconut water and 'Wewara' water do not contain significant amounts of sucrose 90% of total sugar in mature coconut is sucrose and hence the different taste of mature coconut water. 

Minerals 

Tender coconut water contains most of the minerals such as potassium (290 mg%), Sodium (42 mg%), Calcium (44 mg%), magnesium (10 mg%), Phosphorus (9.2 mg%), iron (106 mg%), and copper (26 mg%) (Source: Satyavate Krishnankutty, 1987).  King Coconut  "Thambili", (King Coconut) short in stature and indigenous to that country and the nuts of which its inhabitants regard as "a living pharmacy." And so do sell and consume thousands of them on a daily basis.

A Sight of a king coconut palm in most of Sri Lankan home gardens is a common thing. And bunches of king coconuts can be seen many wayside kiosks throughout the country.  These nuts come in several varieties, the most commonly found being the 'Red Dwarf (kaha Thambili, more commonly called 'Gon Thambili'.) Other varieties are the 'Ran Thambili' a smaller and containing about 40 nuts a bunch. But it is the king coconut that is realy known as 'king of coconuts'. in the villages the more easily available, cheap and popular drink is that of the green coloured young coconut, the 'kurumba'.

The king coconut is also a hot favourite among visitors to Sri Lanka.  It's soft, spongy, tangy, nutritious and tasty kernel called the 'londha' . The kernel can also be eaten straight off the split nut by scooping it either with a piece shaved off from the nut shell which most villages do, or by scooping it with a spoon.

The sweetness of the king coconut water is said to vary among palms (the 'Gon Thambili' is less sweet) and is quantity in each fruit to be dependent on the correct timing of its harvesting which is best when the nut is between its seventh to eighth months of maturity.

It is a good source of carbohydrates, has a high dietary soluble fibre and appreciable amounts of protein, fat, Vitamin E, iron, calcium, and phosphorus. And apart from this, its pharmaceutical benefits are legion. And so king coconut water has been used in folk medicine from time immemorial - particularly as a

'brew' made by the addition of a proportionate quantity of powdered 'Aralu' (myrobalan) nuts to its water and used as a laxative. And that long before modern day medicines like blood purifiers and other chemical and herbal cures came into the picture.

King coconut water comes naturally sterile and is, therefore, a good substitute for life saving saline. It is said that during World 11, both the Americans and the Japanese military doctors found that in an emergency they could dip coconut water instead of sterile glucose solutions straight into a person's veins.

Lanka's ayurveda physicians talk of this 'Aralu brew' as having the properties for "expelling heat from the body" thus resulting in a feeling of freshness - a freshness which is due to the concoctions ability to balance the body's electrolytes. King coconut oil promotes hair growth and the 'ran thambili water' is used as an eye-clean wash.

Moreover, King coconut water is considered a good antidote to some of the powerful drugs that are now being administered to some patients.  scientists believe that king coconut water is far superior to injecterble potassium salts. 

Other countries like India, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and the philippines have also put this product into good use by processing, sweetening, drying of dehydrating its tender kernal and popularising those products around the world. 

In Brazil, the coconut is used green to drink the water, that is purest, nutritional and complete drunk that the nature produces in the tropics. The human being needs it for conservation of its health. The water of green coconut is delicious, cooling, nutritional and therapeutical, and softens the skin,  reduces the cholesterol level combat verminose infantile, prevents and assists in the treatment of the artrite, controls pressão arterial, combat the dehydration restitutes the energy immediately, prevents vomits and nauseas during the pregnancy purify the blood are calmante natural reduce the fever deal with ílcera stomachal combat the arrest of womb prevent the nausea.