CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Natural phytochemicals derived from medicinal plants have gained significant recognition in the potential management of several human clinical conditions, including cancer “Phyto” is the Greek word for plant. There are many “familiar” of phytochemicals and they help the human body in a variety of ways. Phytochemicals may protect human from a host of disease. They are non-nutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease preventive properties, plant produce these chemicals to protect itself but recent research demonstrates that many phytochemicals can protect humans against diseases. There are many phytochemicals in fruits and herbs and each works differently. The coconut, cocos nucifera L, has been described as the “tree of life” or tree of heaven and nature’s greatest gift to man. Each part of the coconut tree can be used to produce items of value for the community. Cocos nucifera L is a dominant type of tree belonging to the family Arecaceae (palm). The common name of cocos nucifera is coconut or coconut palm. Coconut is believed to have its origins in the Ido-Malayan region from where its spread throughout to tropics. The coconut palm is monoecious, i.e. with male and female flowers on the same inflorescence, called a spadix, that develops within a woody sheathe or spathe. At flowering, the spathe splits length wise to expose the spadix. Each spadix consists of a man axis 1-1.5m (3-3-5ft) in length with 40-60 branches or spikelets bearing the flowers linder favorable growing conditions first flowering occurs about 4-5 years after planting.
Once a palm reaches maturity, a spadix (flower spike) is produced in every leaf axil between 12 and 15 spadices are produced throughout the year at fairly regular intervals, although drought conditions can delay the emergence of the spadix or cause it to abort, the number of female flowers per spadix varies. Since the floral primordial are initiated 12 months before the spadix emerges, the number is correlated to the growing conditions (weather, nutrition) 12 months prior to emergence from the literature survey, it is quite evident that the nflowers of cocos nucifera has potent therapentic value on the area of anti bacterial, larvicidal, antioxidant, dietary anti inflammatory, hepatoprotective and anti cancer. The present investigation aims to focus on the identification of some useful phytochemicals constituents cocos nucifera water extract.
1.2 COCOS NUCIFERA
          The coconut tree (cocos nucifera) is a member of the family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only accepted species in the genus cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire cocnut palm, the seed or the fruit, which botanically is a drupe, not a nut. The spelling coconut is an archaic form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning “head” or “skull” from the three indentations on the coconut shell that resemble facial features.
The coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many uses of its different parts and found throughout the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are the part of the daily diets of many people coconut is different from any other fruits because they contain a large quantity of “water” and when immature they are known as tender-nuts or jelly-nuts and may be harvested for drinking. When mature, they still contain some water and can be used as seed-nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, char coal from the hard shell and coir from the fibrous husk. The endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, becoming the edible coconut “flesh” when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying, coconut oil is also widely used in cooking and cosmetic. The clear liquid coconut water within is potable. The husks and leaves can be used as materials to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, it also has cultural and religious significance in many societies that use it.
DESCRIPTION
          Plant Cocos nucifera is a large palm, growing up to 30m (98ft) tall, with pinnate leaves 4-6m (13-20ft) long and pinnae 60-90 long old leaves break away cleanly, leaving the trunk smooth. Coconutsm are generally classified into two general types, tall and dwarf. On very fertile land, a tall coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year, but more often yields less than 30, mainly due to poor cultural practices. Given proper care and growing conditions coconut palms produce the first fruits in six to ten years, it takes 15-230 years to reach peak production.
Fruits botanically, the coconut fruits is a drupe not a true nut like other fruits, it has three layers the exocarp, mesocard and endocarp. The exocarp and mesocarp make up the “husk” of the coconut. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp (outermost layer) removed. The mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores (stoma) or “eyes” that are clearly visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed.
A full size coconut weighs about 1.44kg (3-216). It takes around 6,000 full grown coconuts to produce a tone of corpa.
Roots unlike some other plants, the palm tree have neither a taproot nor roothairs, but have fibrous root system.
The coconut palm root system consists of an abundance of thin rooks that grow outward from the plant near the surface. Only a few of the root penetrate deep into the soil for stability. The type of root system is known as fibrous or adventitious and is a characteristic of grass species. Other types of large trees produce a single downward-growing tap root with a number of feeder roots growing from it.
Coconut palms continue to produce roots from the base of the stem throughout its life. The number of roots produced depends on the age of the tree and the environment, with more than 3,600 roots possible on a tree that is 60 to 70 years old. Roots are uniformly thick from the tree trunk to the root tip.
Inflorescence: The palm produces both the female and male flowers on the same inflorescence; thus the palm is monoecious. Other sources use the term polygamomonoecious. The female flower is much larger than the male flower. Flowering occurs continuously. Coconut palms are believed to be largely cross pollinated, although some dwarf varieties are self-pollinating.