Sago misnomer as cycads are not palms. Extracting edible starch from the sago cycad requires special care due to the poisonous nature of cycads. Cycad sago is used for many of the same purposes as palm sago. The fruit of palm trees from which the sago is produced is not allowed to ripen fully. The full ripening completes the life cycle of the tree and exhausts the starch reserves in the trunk to produce the seeds. It leaves a hollow shell and causes the tree to die. The palms are cut down when they are about 15 years old, just before
Sago Lane textile starch and hospital food. After processing, it was mostly re-exported to Europe and India. Sago became a staple export item for Singapore in 1834. In 1849, there were 15 Chinese and 2 European Sago factories in the area.Sago lane and Sago street became a prosperous manufacturing centre. During the 1850s, there were thirty sago factories in the town which had a total output of 8,000 tons annually. Many of the sago factories were in the Sago Street area. Sago lane in particular, was occupied by the Cantonese. Many of these factory workers lived in the area of these factories,