Palm oil from Ghana with its natural dark color visible, 2 litres
Palm oil block showing the lighter color that results from boiling.
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a lesser extent from theAmerican oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa. It is naturally reddish in color because of a high beta-carotene content. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil derived from the kernel of the same fruit,or coconut oil derived from the kernel of the coconut palm ( Cocos nucifera ). The differences are in color (raw palm kernel oil lacks carotenoids and is not red), and in saturated fat content: Palm mesocarp oil is 41% saturated, while Palm Kernel oil and Coconut oil are 81% and 86% saturated respectively
Palm oil, along with coconut oil, is one of the few highly saturated vegetable fats. It is semi-solid at room temperatures and contains several saturated and unsaturated fats in the forms of glyceryl laurate (0.1%, saturated), myristate (1%, saturated), palmitate (44%, saturated), stearate (5%, saturated), oleate (39%, monounsaturated), linoleate (10%, polyunsaturated), and alpha-linolenate (0.3%, polyunsaturated). Like all vegetable oils, palm oil does not contain cholesterol, although saturated fat intake increases both LDL and HDL cholesterol. Palm oil is GMO-free, i.e., it is not derived from genetically modified organisms.
Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is buoyed by its lower cost and by the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying.A recent rise in the use of palm oil in the food industry has come from changed labelling requirements that have caused a switch away from using trans fats. Palm oil has been found to be a reasonable replacement for trans fats, however a small study conducted in 2009 found that palm oil may not be a good substitute for trans fats for individuals with already elevated LDL levels.
The use of palm oil in food products attracts the concern of environmental activist groups; the high oil yield of the trees, attractive to profit-driven investors, has led, in parts of Indonesia, to removal of forests in order to make space for oil-palm monoculture. This has resulted in acreage losses of the natural habitat of the orangutan, of which both species are endangered and the Sumatran orangutan has been listed as “critically endangered” In 2004, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed to work with palm oil industry to address these concerns. Additionally, in 1992, in response to concerns about deforestation, the Malaysian Government has pledged to limit the expansion of palm oil plantations by retaining a minimum of half the nation’s land as forest cover.
History
Oil palms (Elaeis guineensis)
Human use of oil palms may date as far back as 5,000 years; in the late 1800s, archaeologists discovered a substance that they concluded was originally palm oil in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3,000 BCE. It is believed that Arab traders brought the oil palm to Egypt.
Palm oil from Elaeis guineensis has long been recognized in West African countries, and is widely used as a cooking oil. European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm oil for use as a cooking oil in Europe. Palm oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery during Britain’s Industrial Revolution. Palm oil formed the basis of soap products, such as Lever Brothers’(now Unilever) "Sunlight" soap, and the American Palmolive brand. ‘ By around 1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries, such as Ghana and Nigeria, although this was overtaken by cocoa in the 1880s. [citation needed]
Research institutions
In the 1960s, research and development (R&D) in oil palm breeding began to expand after Malaysia's Department of Agriculture established an exchange program with West African economies and four private plantations formed the Oil Palm Genetics Laboratory. The Malaysian government also established Kolej Serdang, which became the Universiti PutraMalaysia (UPM) in the 1970s to train agricultural and agroindustrial engineers and agribusiness graduates to conduct research in the field.
In 1979 with support from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute(MARDI) and UPM, the government set up the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia(Porim), a public-and-private-coordinated institution, meaning Porim is run by representatives from government and industry B.C. Sekhar was appointed founder and chairman. Porim’s scientists work in oil palm tree breeding, palm oil nutrition and potential oleochemical use. Porim was renamed Malaysian Palm Oil Board in 2000.
Nutrition
Further information: palmitic acid
Many processed foods contain palm oil as an ingredient. The USDA agricultural researchservice states that palm oil is not a healthy substitute for trans fats. Much of the palm oil that is consumed as food is to some degree oxidized rather than in the fresh state, and this oxidation appears to be responsible for the health risk associated with consuming palm oil.
Palm oil is composed of fatty acids, esterified with glycerol like all fat. Unlike all fat, it is high in saturated fatty acids, which are solid at room temperature. Palm oil gives its name to the 16- carbon saturated fatty acid palmitic acid. Monounsaturated oleic acid is also a constituent of palm oil. Unrefined palm oil is a large natural source of tocotrienol, part of the vitamin E family. According to the World Health Organization, evidence is convincing that consumption of palmitic acid increases risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, placing it in the same evidence category as trans fatty acids. Trans fats are also solid at room temperature.
The approximate concentration of fatty acids in palm oil is:
Red palm oil
Red palm oil gets its name from its characteristic dark red color, which comes from carotenes, such as alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lycopene, the same nutrients that give tomatoes, carrots and other fruits and vegetables their rich colors.
Red palm oil contains at least 10 other carotenes, along with tocopherols and tocotrienols(members of the vitamin E family), CoQ10, phytosterols, and glycolipids. In a 2007 animal study, South African scientists found consumption of red palm oil significantly decreased p38-MAPK phosphorylation in rat hearts subjected to a high-cholesterol diet.
Since the mid-1990s, red palm oil has been cold-pressed and bottled for use as cooking oil, and blended into mayonnaise and salad oil. [36] Red palm oil antioxidants like tocotrienols and carotenes are added to foods and cosmetics because of their purported health benefits.
A 2009 study tested the emission rates of acrolein, a toxic and malodorous breakdown product from glycerol, from the deep-frying of potatoes in red palm, olive, and polyunsaturated sunflower oils. The study found higher acrolein emission rates from the polyunsaturated sunflower oil (the scientists characterized red palm oil as “mono-unsaturated”) and lower rates from both palm and olive oils. The World Health Organization established a tolerable oral acrolein intake of 7.5 mg/day per kilogram of body weight. Although acrolein occurs in French fries, the levels are only a few micrograms per kilogram. A 2011 study concluded a health risk from acrolein in food is unlikely.
Refined, bleached, deodorized palm oil
After milling, various palm oil products are made using refining processes. First is fractionation, with crystallization and separation processes to obtain solid (stearin), and liquid ( olein ) fractions. Then melting and degumming removes impurities. Then the oil is filtered and bleached. [clarification needed] Next, physical refining [clarification needed] removes smells and coloration, to produce “refined bleached deodorized palm oil” or RBDPO, and free sheer [clarification needed] fatty acids, which are used in the manufacture of soaps, washing powder and other products. RBDPO is the basic oil product sold on the world’s commodity markets, although many companies fractionate it further to produce palm olein for cooking oil, or process it into other products.
Derivatives of palmitic acid were used in combination with naphtha during World War II to produce napalm (aluminum naphthenate and aluminum palmitate).
Many processed foods contain palm oil as an ingredient. [27] The highly saturated nature of palm oil, while undesirable from the health perspective, renders it solid at room temperature in temperate regions, making it a cheap substitute for butter in uses where solid fat is desirable, such as the making of pastry dough and baked goods: in this respect, it is less of a health-hazard than the alternative substitute of partially hydrogenated trans fat.
Splitting of oils and fats by hydrolysis, or under basic conditions saponification, yields fatty acids, with glycerin (glycerol) as a byproduct. The split-off fatty acids are a mixture ranging in carbon chain length from C4 to C18, depending on the type of oil or fat.
Main article: Biodiesel
Palm oil can be used to produce biodiesel, which is also known as palm oil methyl ester. Palm oil methyl ester is created through a process called transesterification. Palm oil biodiesel is often blended with other fuels to create palm oil biodiesel blends. Palm oil biodiesel meets the European EN 14214 standard for biodiesels. The world’s largest palm oil biodiesel plant is the Finnish operated Neste Oil biodiesel plant in Singapore, which opened in 2011.
The organic waste matter produced when processing oil palm, including oil palm shells and oil palm fruit bunches, can also be used to produce energy. This waste material, also known as biomass, can be converted into pellets that can be used as a biofuel. Additionally, palm oil that has been used to fry foods can be converted into methyl esters for biodiesel. The used cooking oil is chemically treated to create a biodiesel similar to petroleum diesel.
The use of palm oil in the production of biodiesel has led to concerns that the need for fuel is being placed ahead of the need for food, leading to malnourishment in developing nations. This is known as the food versus fuel debate. According to a 2008 report published in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, palm oil was determined to be a sustainable source of both food and biofuel. The production of palm oil biodiesel does not pose a threat to edible palm oil supplies. According to a 2009 study published in the Environmental Science and Policy journal, palm oil biodiesel might increase the demand for palm oil in the future, resulting in the expansion of palm oil production, and therefore an increased supply of food.
The Malaysian government established the National Biofuel Policy in 2006, which led to the implementation of the B5 mandate in some regions of the country. The B5 mandate requires that all diesel sold in these regions of Malaysia contain 5% palm oil biodiesel. This mandate is expected to be expanded nationwide in 2014, with plans to increase the minimum palm oil biodiesel content to 10%. The biodiesel sector in Malaysia has struggled to become profitable, due in part to the high cost of crude palm oil, which led to a dip in biodiesel production in the late 2000s. In 2012, there were 20 biodiesel plants in Malaysia, of which 2 were operational by early 2013. According to an advisor to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, biodiesel production in Malaysia is expected to double in 2013.