Coconuts: The Traditional Tropical Remedy

In Ayurvedic tradition, the coconut tree is called Kalpavriksha — the Tree of Life. Not because it is useful, but because it is complete. Every part serves: the water restores, the flesh nourishes, the oil heals, the shell prerves the water or milk, the leaves build. Nothing is discarded. Nothing requires reinvention. I grew up understanding this not as philosophy but as fact. Being half Indian, with a mother from Penang, coconut was never introduced to me as a concept of wellness — it was simply part of the fabric of life. The biggest myth about the coconut though is that it is not a nut or even a seed. It's a drupe in botanical terms, so more like a tropical plum or cherry.

When I developed psoriasis as a teenager, I returned instinctively to coconut oil in its most unprocessed form, applying it directly to my scalp and skin. My mother used to make it in the kitchen and then I found it bottled in Bali. The 'raw' coconut oil is a rich yellow, not the clear you can buy. In Ayurvedic terms, psoriasis is understood as an excess of Pitta — heat and inflammation in the body. Coconut is cooling by nature. It made sense not as a remedy I had researched, but as something I already knew. It was not an act of discovery. It was an act of remembering.

My understanding deepened during my undergraduate thesis in Trivandrum, where I studied Ayurvedic medicine and tourism. What struck me was not the clinical framework alone, but how seamlessly coconut existed within everyday life — as food, as medicine, as infrastructure. Referenced in ancient texts including the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita as far back as 1500 BC, it has never needed rebranding, but now has become a mass marketed commercial industry. The logic of drinking the water out of an aluminum tetra pack filled with additives has little logic to me as pure from the side of the road is always best. Coconut milk is also excellent for lactose intolerance, but again the fresher the better and I can write about the recipes in another piece.

Across Asia, the coconut carries a quiet historical intelligence. The water has long been used for hydration and recovery, and there are accounts of it being used in place of blood in emergency transfusions during World War II when supply was unavailable. In Malaysia, the pulp is still used in traditional remedies for fever. In Malaysia we have the sea coconut that are particularly good for cough and the only remedy I have ever found effective is from a syrup derived from it or by drinking the sweeter water ir contains. In Ayurvedic practice, oil pulling with coconut oil has been used for centuries as part of daily oral care, drawing out toxins as part of the morning ritual. These are not recent discoveries. They are millenia old but has raised an industry around this beautiful fruit.

After becoming a mother, I began working with coconut remedies more deliberately at home. I made a simple body butter I conconted myself in the kitchen coconut oil and organic cocoa butter, as well as a few secret ingredients as a beauty line not out of the question. I used it daily as part of on my skin and postnatal care. I remember the weight of it, the way it absorbed slowly, the smell that was exuisite the first time that was familiar. and comforting for my stretched skin. I also began incorporating coconut oil internally, not as a trend, but as a continuation of something I had always understood: that in these traditions, food and medicine are rarely separated. It is probably better than Ozempic as I lost kilos gained in a month.

What the coconut teaches the body, if you live alongside it long enough, is that completeness requires no explanation. The oil heals and protects. The water restores. The flesh nourishes. The tree itself becomes shelter, structure, survival. Therefore it is also revered and part of Hindu offerings in Bali, India, Sri Lanka as well as many other cultures and religions.

Nothing about it is new fad is new like many things. It simply is — whole, intelligent, and quietly sustaining life, long before modern language and trends tried to redefine it It has always been revered and respected in the East and will always be my first go to for my beauty and wellness.