 Sago was noted by the Chinese historian Zhao Rukuo (1170–1231) during the Song Dynasty.In his "Zhu Fan Zhi" (1225), a collection of descriptions of foreign countries, he writes that the kingdom of Boni "...produces no wheat, but hemp and rice, and they use "sha-hu" (sago) for grain".The tree is of commercial importance as the main source of sago, a starch obtained from the trunk by washing the starch kernels out of the pulverized pith with water.