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Rattan Use. Rattan is a group of palms from the Calameae tribe (tribus) that have climbing habits, especially Calamus, Daemonorops, and Oncocalamus. The Calameae tribe itself consists of about six hundred members, with distribution areas in tropical Africa, Asia and Australasia. This clan includes the Salacca clans (eg salak), Metroxylon (eg sago palm), and Pigafetta which do not climb, and are not traditionally classified as the plants.
Rattan stems are usually slender with a diameter of 2–5 cm, long, not hollow, and many are protected by long, hard, and sharp spines. These spines function as a means of self-defense from herbivores, as well as help climbing, because its not equipped with tendrils. A rattan stick can reach hundreds of meters in length. The sticks release water when cut and can be used as a way of survival in the wild. The Javan rhinoceros is also known to make ratan as one of its menus.
Most of the ratan comes from forests in Indonesia, such as Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Nusa Tenggara. Indonesia supplies 70% of the world’s ratan needs. The rest of the market is filled from Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Rattan is fast growing and relatively easy to harvest and transport. This is considered to help preserve the forest, because people prefer to harvest ratan than wood.
Utility
Rattan which is commonly used in industry is not too much. Some of the most commonly traded are Manau, Batang, Tohiti, Mandola, Tabu-Tabu, Suti, Sega, Lambang, Blubuk, Java, Bitter, Kubu, Track, Slimit, Cacing, Semambu, and Pulut.
After being cleaned of thorny midribs, raw rattan must be treated for preservation and protected from Blue Stain fungus. Broadly speaking, there are two processes for processing rattan raw materials: cooking with kerosene for medium/large ratan and smoking with sulfur for small rattan.
Furthermore, rattan can be processed into various kinds of raw materials, for example made of Peel/Sanded Peel, polished/semi-polished, made of core, fitrite or star core. The center of the largest rattan handicraft and furniture industry in Indonesia is located in Cirebon.
The main use of rattan (sp. Daemonorops Draco) is as a raw material for furniture, such as chairs, guest tables, and bookshelves. Ratan has several advantages over wood, such as light, strong, elastic / easy to shape, and cheap. The main weakness of ratan is that it is easy to get “Pin Hole” powder fleas.
Rattan rods can also be made as walking sticks and weapons. Various martial arts colleges teach how to fight using ratan sticks. In some places in Southeast Asia, ratan is used as a bat in rattan caning punishments for certain criminal acts.
Some rattans secrete sap (resin) from the flower stalks. This sap is red in color and is known commercially as dragon’s blood. This resin is used to color the violin or as meni.
The Dayak community in Central Kalimantan utilizes young its stalks as a vegetable component.