Coconut pith (Cocos nucifera) Synonyms: Coco peat, coir fibre pith, coir dust Common name: Coconut

Local names: Hindi: Nariyal Manipuri: Yubi Tamil: Tennai Malayalam: Thengu Telugu: Kobbari chettu, Kobbari kaya Konkani: Narlu Marathi: Naral, Shriphal

The Coconut palm is a member of the palm family. The origin of this plant is claimed to be south-east Asia and northwestern South America. The term coconut refers to the fruit of the coconut palm. Coir fibre and fibre pith are extracted from  the coconut husk. Coconut fibre is extracted by soaking the husks in water for 6 weeks. This loosens out the fibre and makes extraction possible by mechanical means. Coco pith is a by-product obtained in this process (when coconut husks are processed for the extraction of the long fibres from the husk). The availability of the coconut pith is approximately 0.15 million tones in India. It contains about 62.7% TDN.