Characterization of the Ethnobotany of Riau Province Mascot Flora

(Oncosperma tigillarium (Jack) Ridl.)

Desti

, Fitmawati

, Putri Ade Rahma Yulis

and Mayta Novaliza Isda

Biology Education Program, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Biology Department, Universitas Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia

Keywords:

Ethnobotany, Oncosperma Tigillarium, Plant Use, Riau’s Mascot Flora.

Abstract:

Nibung (Oncosperma tigillarium) is the identity of Riau ﬂora’s mascot. This research aims to characterize the

ethnobotany of that ﬂora. The survey method used in this research. The research method used included ﬁeld

observations, discussions and deeply personal interview with local community. Data collection techniques

were carried out directly with questionnaire assisted communication. Ethnobotanical information was gathered

from the local community through interviews of the respondents. Data collection were conducted at Bukitbatu,

Bengkalis District, Riau Province, Indonesia. Data collected from the informants were selected randomly. We

found that all of the parts of nibung plant have high economic value that support the local community lives,

hence used much as construction materials, for example: buildings, furniture, and shipyards. Therefore,

nibung has an ideal plant to support its wide use in the community.

1 INTRODUCTION

Nibung is a member of Arecaceae. The members of

this family of plants are the oldest species that have

been found since the time of Cretaceous period, ap-

proximately 120 million years ago. The Aracaceae in

the world is estimated to have 200 - 300 genus even

more and about 2000 - 3000 species spread in trop-

ical and sub-tropical regions (A., 2000). Aracaceae,

which is a group of monocot plants, is the only family

in the Aracales order that is very interesting in terms

of botany, its beauty shape, diversity of species and its

usefulness (Anderson, ).

Nibung tree is one of the important germplasms

in Riau Province. In addition, yet the abundance of

information on characters of nibung in Riau Province

causing the plant not known by people. Therefore, it

is expected that with the characterization of the eth-

nobotanical study can be a reference in the socializa-

tion and exploration efforts nibung plants as the Riau

mascot ﬂora.

Our previous research showed the characterization

of morphological of nibung plant was observed by us-

ing of the instrument to observe of sample of nibung

plants in the Bengkalis District, Riau Province. It is

accordance with Dransﬁeld, et al. (2008), Shengji,

et al. (2009), and Baba, et al. (2013) that nibung as

one of the Plamae family has those characteristic as a

coastal plants (P et al., 2009; J et al., ; S et al., 2013).

More than 25 characters are used to describe the

characteristic of morphological nibung plants. The re-

sult shows that nibung in Riau have a compound life

habit. Vegetative organ that has been observed is com-

posed of parts of the roots, stems, and leaves.

Furthermore, morphological observation in the

ﬁeld can provide useful information for determining

the character of a plant that wants to be developed or

be a special identiﬁer in distinguishing a plant. Mor-

phological characters of the identiﬁer is important can

be the identity of the plants. Morphological marker is

the ﬁrst step of the observed directly based on the na-

ture of the morphological characteristics among oth-

ers are secondary (Jamsari, ). It can be assumed that

the characterization of nibung as a mascot ﬂora of

Riau is importance aspects.

On the other hand, characterization of the ethnob-

otany study of nibung (O. tigillarium) is expected to

provide information about all the characters. So that it

can help in the effort of development and conservation

of plants nibung for the future. The information on the

characterization of nibung in Riau Province is still not

there. The less of the information about how the uti-

lization of nibung plants in Riau Province support im-

portance of this sudy. Therefore, the activities of the

characterization in Riau Province nibung is very im-

portant to observed. The aim of this study was to char-

250

Desti, ., Fitmawati, ., Yulis, P. and Isda, M.

Characterization of the Ethnobotany of Riau Province Mascot Flora (Oncosperma tigillarium (Jack) Ridl.).

DOI: 10.5220/0009186202500253

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology (ICoSET 2019), pages 250-253

ISBN: 978-989-758-463-3

acterize ethnobotany aspect of nibung (Oncosperma

tigillarium).

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data collection were conducted at Bukitbatu,

Bengkalis District, Riau Province, Indonesia (Figure

1). Samples collected from the ﬁeld were then

examined for the ethnobotanical study of nibung

(Figure 2).

Figure 1: Map of the location of the research.

Figure 2: Nibung plants in the ﬁeld of the research.

The research method used in conducting this re-

search is to use a survey method with interview tech-

niques. Data collection techniques were carried out

directly with questionnaire assisted communication

(Singarimbun and Effendi, 1989).

The research method used included ﬁeld observa-

tions, discussions and deeply personal interview with

local community. Data collected from the informants

were selected randomly. Interviews were conducted

involving 24 respondents. Information was obtain by

open-ended interviewing, free, direct observations at

community location, sample collection, literature and

its analyses.

Data collected from the respondents about the

uses of nibung plants for type of plants, parts of

plants, the preparation and applications of plants, and

the kind of the use of parts of plants of nibung. Those

data were compiled and presented descriptively.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Based on the results of interviews that have been

made known that in general the community has

known about the nibung plants. This is because these

plants are often found in the environment around their

home. However, local people do not know that nibung

was a plant that has been used as a mascot ﬂora Riau

Province.

It was found approximately more than ﬁve kind

of useful of nibung plants in Bengkalis district, Riau

(usefulness of parts of nibung plants in Riau Province

shown in Table 1) were used by the communities.

Table 1: Usefulness of parts of nibung plants in Riau.

Parts of

nibung

Usefulness Description

Root Herbal medicine

Water immersion

root nibung plant

used by the community

as an abdominal

pain medication

Stem

Building materials,

shipyards, furniture,

and traditional

Malay weapons

Utilized as the main

material of wood

substitute, the material

of ”spear” ”for catching

the ﬁsh in the river”

The Bark

Materials for rooﬁng

of houses and walls

of houses

Used as materials for

building materials

Leaves

Rooﬁng materials

and baskets

The leaves of nibung

used for wicker materials

Flos As a fragrance of rice Used as food ingredients

Shoot of

ﬂower

(“umbut”)

As a source of food

“umbut” used by the

community as a source

of food with high

nutritional value

In Riau Province, nibung’s stem are used for wa-

ter pipes, ﬂoors of houses on stilts, or simple bridges.

The bark can be woven into the roof or wall of the

house. The leaves can be woven for the roof of the

Characterization of the Ethnobotany of Riau Province Mascot Flora (Oncosperma tigillarium (Jack) Ridl.)

251

house or basket. Flower buds (“umbut”) can be made

for vegetables.

Furthermore, part of the young shoots of plants ni-

bung rated to have a better taste compared to bamboo

shoots of bamboo. From the inﬂorescence can be used

as a fragrance of rice. And while the fruit, can serve

as a substitute of peanut to eat. In addition, nibung

has also been used by the people of Riau both for car-

pentry materials, bridge poles and for weapons in the

form of swords and spears, in the independence of the

ﬁghters in Riau who are in the coastal areas using ni-

bung as a “spear”. It is linked to anatomical structure

of nibung’s stem as same as the other palm plant such

as Bactris (TM et al., ).

In the traditional life of the Malay people of Riau,

nibung was known hundreds of years ago. Closely

linked nibung with the people of Riau, among oth-

ers, reﬂected from the name of this ﬂora used for the

name of a village or a particular place in Riau. In ad-

dition, many traditional expressions and rhymes link

it to those plant. Nibung as a one of the characteristic

of mangrove habitat have a potency for educotourism

and to protected areas. It was been studied by the oth-

ers researchers in Pahang, Malaysia (ZS et al., 2015).

Nibung plant has a uniqueness that is on the ﬁber

that is famous for its strength until. The ﬁbers in

the tangential section (Figure 1) is different from the

ﬁbers in the radial section and this is what makes ni-

bung a perfect wood substitute for the furniture in-

dustry. That fact is accordance with the other re-

search that has been conducted by Ernawati (2009)

and Nurlia, et al. (2013) that nibung used by the com-

munities in the pattern of utilization of marketing ni-

bung from the habitat of that plant (Ernawati, 2009; A

et al., ).

The identity of the nibung plant that has been used

as the ﬂora mascot of Riau Province is related to the

strength of the stem that symbolizes the character of

Riau Malay people who have persistence, have high

ﬁghting power, strong holds the customs of Malay

culture. Therefore, nibung plant is also used as a sym-

bol of the fraternal community of Riau Malay proper-

ties, especially for Riau community.

Type of nibung plant rooting is root-shaped ﬁbers.

The stem and leaves are protected by spines hard long

black. Its leaves are arranged pinnatus with com-

pound leaves type. Generative organs observed is

composed of organs of the ﬂowers and fruit. Flow-

ers plants nibung arrayed in yellow. While the fruit

is round-shaped, dark green to dark purple. Types of

ﬂowering and fruit plants observed nibung pertained

type compound interest. Pollen of nibung has sin-

gle type. It can be used to character palino on some

place. It is accordance with Winantris, et al. (2012)

that pollen of nibung ﬂowers are can be used to iden-

tify a part of delta plain character in Delta Mahakam,

Kalimantan, Indonesia (I and Syafri, ).

Some parts of nibung plants used by the local peo-

ple for traditional herbal medicines and wood substi-

tute for the construction, ﬁshery and furniture indus-

try. Nibung leaves is also used for herbal medicine.

The results of this study are in accordance with

the results of previous research conducted by Heyne

(1987). It shows that it was one of the economic plant

in Indonesia that used to medical usefull. It has the

potential as vary utilization (BE and G Hardiansyah, ;

K., 1987).

4 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of the research that has been con-

ducted, it can be conclude that nibung has an ideal

plant to support its wide use in the community. Ni-

bung’s stem are used for water pipes, ﬂoors of houses

on stilts, or simple bridges. The bark can be woven

into the roof or wall of the house. The leaves can be

woven for the roof of the house or basket. Flower

buds can be made vegetables by the community.

Nibung has also been used by the people of Riau

both for carpentry materials, bridge poles and for

weapons in the form of swords and spears. All of the

parts of nibung plant have high economic value that

support the local community lives, hence used much

as construction materials, for example: buildings, fur-

niture, and shipyards.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Directorate of Research and Public Service,

Directorate-General of Research and Develop-

ment for the Strengthening of the Ministry of

Research, Technology and Higher Education,

According to the Research Contract Number:

284/KONTRAK/LPPM/4-2019 through Researchand

Services Institutes of Universitas Islam Riau (LPPM

UIR).

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