Screw Pine

The fruit is very fragrant with an excellent flavour. The soft portion of the pulp is cooked. The fruit can be made into flour and paste. Each wedge has a fleshy base imbued with a sweet-smelling, orange pulp with a flavour like sweet, mashed pumpkin. The seed is eaten raw or cooked. A delicious nutty flavour, though they are difficult to extract. Terminal buds are eaten raw like the apical buds of palm trees, they can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The inner base of young leaves are also eaten raw. Kewra water, which is a watery extract distilled from the flowers, is used as a flavouring in desserts and drinks. Aerial roots are cooked and processed into a beverage.

The aerial roots yield a decoction that is used as a beverage in the treatment of blennorrhoea.

The leaves are used to make hats, mats, baskets, clothing, sails etc. There is a thornless variety that is used to produce fibres for thatch, cordage etc. The chief use of this plant is in the production of the fibre used in manufacturing sabutan hats. Hats made of sabutan are strong and durable, and in texture more nearly resemble the Panama hat than any other kind manufactured in the Philippines.

The fruit needs to be cooked to destroy a deleterious substance.