''Odiyal'' () is a hard snack made from palmyra palm tubers (

Palmyra sprout Palmyra sprout (also known as Palmyra tuber) is an underground Shoot (botany), sprout of the Palmyra palm or ''Borassus flabellifer''. It can be dried or boiled to form Odiyal, a hard chewable snack. It is used as an offering in Lakshmi Puja in ...

s). Generally, it is split in two and dried until it gets hard. Odiyal can be prepared in another form, called '. ''Pulukodiyal'' is prepared by boiling and then drying. It is used to produce Pulukodiyal flour. Odiyal is a main ingredient for some food products such as odiyal flour, odiyal chips, odiyal

pittu Puttu (; ; ; ) is a dish native to the Southern Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and parts of Karnataka, as well as Sri Lanka. It is made of steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut shavings, sometimes with a sweet or savory fi ...

, odiyal kool, Palm posha, etc. It is a popular snack in the

Jaffna peninsula The Jaffna Peninsula (, or ) is a region in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is home to the capital city of the province, Jaffna, and comprises much of the former land mass of the medieval Jaffna Kingdom. The peninsula was historically ...

Research

A study says that odiyal has

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

fibre Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorp ...

calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

and

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

in various levels. It has likely

toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacteria, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect o ...

and it can be reduced by heating to for 15 to 20 minutes.

References

External links

The Palmyra or Toddy Palm (Borassus flabellifer L.)

Some studies on the neurotoxic effect of palmyrah odiyal flour
{{Sri Lankan cuisine Borassus Edible palms Indian cuisine Sri Lankan snack food