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Palm
Elaeis guineensis
A native of West Africa, the history of the use of
this particularly rich source of edible vegetable oil can be traced
back over 5,000 years to the days of the Egyptian Pharaohs.
It is a very productive plant and every part can be
used in a wide variety of products, earning it the title, ‘Gift
from God’ in almost every country where it is grown. The
palm fronds and fibres are used in the manufacture of medium density
fibreboards, chipboard, paper, matting and mattress fibre, and of
course the wood from the trunks can be made into furniture. There is
the obvious culinary use of the oil, as well as for the manufacture
of polymers, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, soaps and detergents, and
crude palm oil can even be used as a fuel to
run cars fitted with modified (Elsbett) engines.
The oil palm is a very
productive crop. The plant produces fruit between 2½-3 years
after planting, bearing 10-12 fruit bunches annually, each weighing
between 20-30kg and carrying anywhere between 1,000-3,000 fruits.
Each hectare of plantation can yield up to 5 tonnes of oil each year
- 5 to 10 times more than any other commercially grown oil crop. In
addition, each palm has a commercially viable life of up to 30 years.
The fruit is processed to produce two kinds of oil: palm
oil from the mesocarp, or flesh, and palm kernel oil from the
seed or kernel. Freshly extracted palm oil
is the richest known natural source of beta carotene, or pro-vitamin
A, and also has a high content of both tocopherol and tocotrienol
varieties of Vitamin E. Palm vitamin E has been reported as acting as
a potent biological antioxidant which helps prevent the formation of
cancers, cellular ageing and atherosclerosis. The tocotrienols in
particular have been shown to have blood cholesterol regulating
properties and are also currently being investigated for their action
in inhibiting the growth of Oestrogen responsive human breast cancer cells.
Additional studies are also under way at the Center
for Membrane Sciences, University of Kentucky which have
shown that vitamin E prevents the death of brain cells which have
been exposed to a toxic protein found in the brains of
Alzheimer’s sufferers.
It is a naturally stable oil, with a balanced
composition of both unsaturated and saturated fatty acids to
complement the high vitamin E level. The unsaturates consist mainly
of the much-favoured monounsaturated oleic acid whilst the saturates
comprise 44% palmitic acid and 5% stearic acid. This composition
gives the palm oil a semi-solid consistency,
which means that, for solid-fat products such as margarine and
vegetable ghee, (vanaspati), the oil does not have to go through the
expensive hydrogenation process which has come under fire recently
after studies have shown that the unnatural trans fatty acids formed
during the process are detrimental to health. Like other vegetable
oils, such as coconut, palm oil is
cholesterol-free and readily digested and utilised as a source of energy.
Crude palm oil is the richest
source of the carotenoids with concentrations of around 15 times more
than that present in carrots and this is being capitalised upon by
the industry in the production of a red palm oil
which retains its carotenoids, and which has already been adopted as
a natural dietary therapy in the fight against vitamin A induced blindness. |