KUCHING: Ice cream from ‘dabai’, anyone? What about dabai soap? Yes, there is such a thing. Few people know it, but it is true. At the very least, soap can be made to smell like dabai which, by the way, should be heavenly for dabai addicts.
Dabai (canarium odontophyllum), a seasonal fruit that is native to Borneo is, first and foremost, a delicacy enjoyed by locals and tourists alike. Soaked in hot water before eating, dabai is usually seasoned with soy sauce or salt for flavour. The creamy yellowish flesh can also be used in dishes such as the much-loved dabai fried rice, but this not what this article is about.
On focus here are the seeds which are also edible once they are cracked open. The texture and flavour is not unlike that of almonds or pistachios.
Although the nutshells are usually discarded as waste without much thought, Dr Lidyana Roslan, a lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (Unimas) Faculty of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering), is currently studying the potential of dabai nutshells as activated carbon for filtering domestic wastewater.
“We have quite an abundance of dabai here. However, the seeds or the nutshells in particular are usually discarded, so I am studying the waste in line with sustainability efforts,” she said in a recent interview with New Sarawak Tribune.
As such, she urged the public to contribute their discarded dabai seeds or nutshells to her research project.
While she and her team are conducting this study in a lab setting, she pointed out that producing activated carbon from dabai nutshells or other forms of biomass could actually be done by people in their own homes through a straightforward process.
She therefore encouraged the public to search the internet to gain a better understanding on the process, explaining that the activated carbon produced could then be used to filter water.
“You can do it in a metal container such as in a Milo tin. You just have to burn the dabai nutshells at 700°C to 800°C until you get charcoal. Once you have ground it that is the finished product. The main idea I want to convey is anyone can do it at home,” Lidyana said, adding that other forms of biomass could also be used instead of dabai nutshells.
She said activated carbon filters would have useful applications, especially in the rural areas of Sarawak.
“In the rural areas, they have clean water that they collect from rain and rivers but they can actually make these activated carbon filters from biomass to act as an extra filtration measure.
“The biomass waste can be from dabai, limes, durian, and so on. However, we are focusing on the underutilised dabai,” she said.
She said the United Nations (UN), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and Department of Agriculture Sarawak encouraged studies on dabai as it was an underutilised resource.
Aside from being used as a filter for water from taps, rain and rivers, she said these activated carbon filters could also be utilised for domestic wastewater filtration.
“Instead of discharging wastewater directly into rivers in rural areas, why not make a filter pillow out of activated carbon and place it at the sanitary flow. In this way, dirty water is filtered before it enters a river,” said Lidyana.
Thus, she said the rural community could easily produce activated carbon themselves as they had all the resources readily available.
“If our project can go even further, we can actually educate people on how to make their own activated carbon water filters at home,” she remarked.
Furthermore, she said dabai seeds could withstand long periods of time once cleaned and air-dried.
“You can keep it wrapped in newspaper and plastic for even a year or so. Then when you need activated carbon, you can burn it.
“So this is a very sustainable effort and we are able to utilise our indigenous plants to the fullest,” she said.
Lidyana’s research on dabai nutshells as activated carbon for filtering of domestic wastewater is still ongoing, having commenced just last year.
However, she shared that results thus far had shown it had potential as a precursor for activated carbon.
Having spent a decade completing her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at Kitami Institute of Technology in Japan, she said she aimed to apply what she learned in a Sarawakian context.
“I am using what I learned there, just changing some of the materials and in that way, I can give back to Sarawak,” said Lidyana.
