A sugarcane plant is a bundle of five to twenty erect stems, sometimes known as "tillers," that are between two and five meters tall and two and four centimeters in diameter. Each stem is made up of a series of nodes and internodes, and each node has a band of root primordia and a bud. The pith, located below the thick, waxy bark, is where the sugar is kept. Sugarcane is an all-year-round crop that requires a lot of water to grow.
The family Poaceae perennial grass known as sugarcane, or Saccharum officinarum, is mostly grown for its juice, which is used to make sugar. It is mostly grown in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Brazil in particular, where the canes can be used to rapidly produce ethyl alcohol, the plant is also grown for the manufacture of biofuel (ethanol). The straw and bagasse (cane fibers), which are leftovers from the processing of cane sugar, can be used to make cellulosic ethanol, a second-generation biofuel. Growing sugarcane has long been linked to the production of fermented beverages. In the 17th century, the Caribbean and Brazil were the birthplaces of rum as we know it today. Traditional rums are manufactured by fermenting either cane juice or molasses to generate "agricultural rum" or "industrial rum," respectively. Bagasse, which is mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, can be burned as fuel and used as animal feed. Additionally, it is a raw material used in the production of textiles, thermal insulation, films, paper, and cardboard. Animals are fed molasses, which is also used to make acids and help yeast develop. The sucrose is put through a variety of chemical procedures to create ethers and esters, which are then used to create plasticizers, adhesives, cosmetics, varnishes, and other things.
I hope that this article has helped you understand that sugarcane has many uses outside making sugar, and that you now have more knowledge about them.
PDO I Ayesa Gay A. Bejerano, RND
References:
Sugarcane
https://www.cirad.fr/en/our-activities-our-impact/tropical-value-chains/sugarcane/plant-and-uses
Sugarcane Profile
https://www.agmrc.org/commodities-products/grains-oilseeds/sugarcane-profile
Sugarcane
