Palm oil

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Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Oil palm tree. It is the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil.[1]

The oil palm is a tropical palm tree. There are two species of oil palm, the better known one is the one originating from Guinea, Africa and was first illustrated by Nicholaas Jacquin in 1763, hence its name, Elaeis guineensis Jacq.

Fruit of palm oil tree

The fruit is reddish about the size of a large plum and grows in large bunches. A bunch of fruits can weigh between 10 to 40 kilograms each. Each fruit contains a single seed (the palm kernel) surrounded by a soft oily pulp. Oil is extracted from both the pulp of the fruit (palm oil, an edible oil) and the kernel (palm kernel oil, used mainly for soap manufacture).

For every 100 kilograms of fruit bunches, you typically extract 22 kilograms of palm oil and 1.6 kilograms of palm kernel oil.

Palm oil itself is reddish and contains a high amount of carotenoids. It is used as cooking oil, to make margarine and is a component of many processed foods.

Palm oil and palm kernel oil are composed of fatty acids esterified with glycerol just like any ordinary fat. Both palm oil and palm kernel oil are high in unhealthy saturated fatty acids, along with coconut oil, beef fat and milk fat. The oil palm gives its name to the 16 carbon saturated fatty acid palmitic acid found in palm oil; monosaturated oleic acid is also a constituent of palm oil while palm kernel oil contains mainly lauric acid. Palm oil is the largest natural source of tocotrienol, part of the Vitamin E family. Palm oil is one of the few vegetable oils relatively high in saturated fats, though it is not as high in them as palm kernel oil.

Napalm derives its name from naphthenic acid, palmitic acid and pyro-technics or simply from a recipe using naphtha and palm oil.

The high productivity of the Oil palm at producing oil (as high as 7,250 liters per hectare per year) has made it the prime source of vegetable oil for many tropical countries. It is also likely to be used for producing the necessary vegetable oil for biodiesel, an example being a planned refinery Darwin, Australia which will import the palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Oil palm originated in West Africa but has since been planted successfully in tropical regions within 20 degrees of the equator. There is evidence of palm oil use in Ancient Egypt.

In the Republic of the Congo, or Congo Brazzaville, precisely in the Northern part, not far from Ouesso, local people produce this oil by hand. They harvest the fruit, boil it to let the water part evaporate, then they press what its left in order to collect the reddish, orange colored oil.

The world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil today is Malaysia, producing about 47% of the world's supply of palm oil. Indonesia is the second largest world producer of palm oil producing approximately 36% of world palm oil volume. Both nations are expanding their palm oil production capacity and the market continues to grow.

Worldwide palm oil production during the 2002-2003 growing season was 30.5 million metric tons, of which 3.3 tons was in the form of palm kernel oil. It is thus by far the most widely-produced tropical oil, and constitutes thirty percent of total edible oil production worldwide.[1]

Environmental and cultural impact

World leaders are seeking to move away from what Bush calls an 'oil addiction' and acknowledge the damage being done to the Earth's atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Palm oil and other similar vegetable oils do not produce net increases in green house gases and can be burnt in diesel engines so answering part of mankind's energy needs. The production of this green fuel worldwide will produce massive changes in plant and wildlife and needs careful management.

There is increasing concern from environmental and other NGOs about the social and environmental impacts of the palm oil industry.Rainforests are being cleared to make room for the plantations, thus reducing the habitat for some threatened species, such as the orangutan (on Borneo and Sumatra). The resulting plantations are often run by agribusiness, and locals in places such as West Papua and Kalimantan are missing out on jobs to migrant workers.

Orangutan experts around the world have unified to recognise that continued unsustainable development of the palm oil sector is the single greatest threat to the future of orangutans in the wild. The best professional estimates state that if the industry is not regulated then within 12 years we may witness the disappearance of orangutans from the wild. Other species that are critically threatened by palm oil expansion into their remaining ranges include the Sumatran tiger and rhinoceros.


File:Palmoilnursery.jpg


The Malaysian government is refocusing the use of palm oil to the production of biodiesel; it has encouraged the building of biodiesel plants. This is due to the higher prices of fuel and increasing demand for alternatives sources of energy.

The plants, which will start operating middle of next year and produce 100,000 tonnes of biodiesel annually. Strong demand for biodiesel from Europe as well as Colombia, India, South Korea and Turkey was fuelling the industry's growth, as more countries sought to reduce their reliance on oil.

Malaysia has already begun preparations to change from diesel to bio-fuels by 2008, including drafting legislation that will make the switch mandatory. From 2007, all diesel sold in Malaysia must contain 5 % palm oil. Being the world's largest producer of crude palm oil, Malaysia intends to take advantage of the rush in finding cleaner fuels.

With the growth of emphasis on biodiesels presenting a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels its important to recognise that these benefits are partly negated when forest is cleared to make room for biodiesel crops such as oil palm. NGOs are now alerting the international arena to the fact that despite millions of hectares of land standing unplanted in Indonesia there is still clearance of tropical hardwood forest for palm oil plantations. Furthermore, as the remaining unprotected lowland forest dwindles, developers are looking to peat swamp for conversion, which causes a draining of the peat and this not only unlocks the carbon in the surface covering of trees, but begins an oxidation process of the carbon in the peat reserves which can be between 5,000 to 10,000 years worth of carbon locked into the ground. Drained peat is also at very high risk of forest fire, and there is a clear record of fire being used to clear vegetation for palm oil development in Indonesia.

Health

Among the touted health benefits of palm oil, most notably red palm oil are:

References

  1. ^ a b United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Statistics 2004. Table 3-51.


If you buy chips from Iceland - they have Palm oil in them

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