Definition: Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree. Previously the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil, 28 million metric tons were produced worldwide in 2004[1]. It may have now surpassed soybean oil as the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world.

The palm fruit is the source of both palm oil (extracted from palm fruit) and palm kernel oil (extracted from the fruit seeds). Palm oil itself is reddish because it contains a high amount of betacarotene. It is used as cooking oil, to make margarine and is a component of many processed foods. Boiling it for a few minutes destroys the carotenoids and the oil becomes white.

Palm oil is one of the few vegetable oils relatively high in saturated fats (such as coconut oil) and thus semi-solid at room temperature.

 

History
Palm oil (from the African Oil Palm, Elaeis guineensis) was long recognized in West African countries, and among West African peoples it is in widespread use as a cooking oil. European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm oil for use in Europe, but as the oil was bulky and cheap, and due to the much higher profits available from slave-trading, palm oil unfortunately remained rare outside West Africa. During the early nineteenth century, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade and Europe's demand for legitimate commerce (trade in material goods rather than human lives) obliged African and European countries to seek new sources of trade revenue. In the Asante Confederacy, state-owned slaves built large plantations of oil palm trees, while in the neighbouring Kingdom of Dahomey, King Ghezo passed a law in 1856 forbidding his subjects from cutting down oil palms. Palm oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders, the oil being used as industrial lubricant for the machines of Britain's ongoing Industrial Revolution, as well as forming the basis for various brands of soap such as Palmolive. By c.1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria. By the 1880s, cocoa had become more highly sought-after, leading to the decline of the palm oil industry and trade within these countries.

Palm oil was introduced in Malaysia (then Malaya) in 1917 when the first plantation was established. Then the oil palms plantation was mostly operated by English landowners. From the 1960's major oil palm plantation scheme was introduced by the government mainly to eradicate poverty. Each settlers are allocated 10 acres of land (about 4 hectares) planted either with oil palm or rubber, and they are given 20 years to pay off the land.

In 2004, Malaysia produces 14 million tons of palm oil from more than 38,000 square kilometres of land, making it the largest exporter of palm oil in the world.

Chemical composition
Palm oil and palm kernel oil are composed of fatty acids, esterified with glycerol just like any ordinary fat. Both are high in saturated fatty acids, about 50% and 80%, respectively. The oil palm gives its name to the 16 carbon saturated fatty acid palmitic acid found in palm oil; monounsaturated 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 also high in vitamin K and dietary magnesium.

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

The approximate concentration of fatty acids (FAs) in palm oil is as follows:

Fatty acid content of palm oil
Type of fatty acid pct
Palmitic C16   44.3%
Stearic C18   4.6%
Myristic C14   1.0%
Oleic C18   38.7%
Linoleic C18   10.5%
Other/Unknown   0.9%
green: Saturated; blue: Mono unsaturated; orange: Poly unsaturated

Fatty acid content of palm kernel oil
Type of fatty acid pct
Lauric C12   48.2%
Myristic C14   16.2%
Palmitic C16   8.4%
Capric C10   3.4%
Caprylic C8   3.3%
Stearic C18   2.5%
Oleic C18   15.3%
Linoleic C18   2.3%
Other/Unknown   0.4%
green: Saturated; blue: Mono unsaturated; orange: Poly unsaturated


Fatty acids are saturated and unsaturated aliphatic carboxylic acids with carbon chain length in the range of C6 up to C24. An example of a fatty acid is palmitic acid

CH3 – (CH2)14 – COOH

Splitting oils and fats produces the fatty acids. Glycerin is produced as by-product. The split fatty acid is a mixture of fatty acids ranging from C6 to C18 depending on the type of Oil / Fat. The pure fatty acid is used as an important raw material in the manufacture of soaps, washing powder and other personal care products:[4] . It is important to purify the fatty acid to as high a product as possible.


Environmental and cultural impact

Palm oil nurseryAs of 2006, the cumulative land area of palm oil plantations is approximately 11 million hectares.[5] Demand for palm oil has been rising and is expected to climb further, particularly for use in biodiesel (see below). Rising demand may result in more tropical forest being cleared to establish new palm plantations. The is growing concern that this will be harmful to the environment in several ways:

Increase in global warming.
Habitat destruction of certain endangered species (e.g. the orangutans in Borneo, the Sumatran tiger and Asian rhinoceros[6]
Potential extinction of some such species
Many places that are of interest for growing palm are biodiversity hotspots, increasing the impact of this development on the environment.[7] In addition to environmental impact, the logging and land-clearing by large timber companies that accompany the establishment of palm plantations threatens the livelihood of minority tribes such as the Penan and Iban in Sarawak, Borneo.

Palm Oil as Biodiesel
Palm oil, like other vegetable oils can and is used to create biodiesel, which can be used as a replacement fuel for gasoline, diesel and LPG in internal combustion engines. Biodiesel is promoted as a form of renewable energy that greatly reduces net emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Therefore, until recently it was being touted as a way to decrease the impact of the greenhouse effect and also the possibility of peak oil. However, recent research has confirmed that the benefits of biofuels to counter global warming will be small if not unexistent.

Also, given the many problems that are inheritly linked to oil palm cultivation, research into different sources for the production of first generation biofuels has been done. The research conducted has yielded possible replacement candidats for palm oil (as jatropha), which are considered less damaging to the environment.

However, regardless of these new innovations, biodiesel production from palm oil is still globally catching on and will continue to increase. As such, several projects have been started in a number of countries around the world. A quick review:

Malaysia
The Malaysian government is refocusing the use of palm oil to the production of biodiesel to cater to the huge demand from European countries; it has encouraged the building of biodiesel plants. This is due to the higher prices of fuel and increasing demand for alternative sources of energy in the Western world.

The plants 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 has fueled the industry's growth as more countries seek to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

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 to find cleaner fuels.

With the growing emphasis on biodiesels presenting a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels it is 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 thousands of square kilometres 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, which not only unlocks the carbon in the surface covering of trees, but begins an oxidation process of the carbon in the peat reserve--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.

Australia
On 23 Nov 2006 Australia's first palm oil based biodiesel plant was opened in Darwin. When fully operational in 2007 this plant should produce 140 million litres of biodiesel annually.

Health
Palm oil, despite being the most used vegetable oil for cooking (primarily because of its huge use in industrial food preparations), is one of the most unhealthy cooking oils available (after Coconut oil) . Besides via the references, this information can also be derived from the table found at the cooking oil article, which gives the percentage of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Their heavy use nonetheless in the commercial food industry can thus only be explained by its comparatively low price, being one of the cheapest vegetable or cooking oils on the market [18]. Given the unhealthyness as a cooking oil, consumers are best to avoid it and use an alternative, more healthy, cooking oil as canola oil, soy oil, ... (see also: Cooking_oil). This should be done when they eather prepare the food themselves or when they buy prepared foods. The latter however may not be simple as palm oil is described on food labels simply as "vegetable oil", instead of "palm oil".

Red palm oil, when compared to regular palm oil however, has found to be more healthy. This is a result of several mitigating substances found in the red palm oil which slightly reduce the unhealthyness of the saturated fats, also found in the reed palm oil. These compounds are:

betacarotenes (present in higher amounts as in regular palm oil)
tocotrienols
co-enzyme Q10
squalene and ubiquinone
Vitamin A and Vitamin E .

Palm oil and the blood cholesterol controversy
For many years now, it has been established that the primary cholesterol-elevating fatty acids are the saturated fatty acids with 12 (lauric acid), 14 (myristic acid) and 16 (palmitic acid) carbon atoms with a concomitant increase in the risk of coronary heart disease. Monounsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid is as effective in reducing serum total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels as polyunsaturated fatty acids such as alpha-linoleic acid.[23] The World Health Organization in its report[24] states there is convincing evidence that palmitic oil consumption contributes to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Research in the US and Europe support the WHO report.

In a response to the report, the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council cited a study in China comparing palm, soybean, peanut oils and lard (all of which contain saturated fat) showing that palm oil increased the levels of good cholesterol and reduced the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood (Dr. Koh Chu-Sing, Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council, citing Zhang, et al, 1995, 1997, 2006).

An older study by Hornstra in 1990 also supported the claims of the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council.

A study by the Departments of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science and Medicine, University of Alberta showed palmitic acid to have no hypercholesterolaemic effect if intake of linoleic acid was greater than 4.5% of energy, but that if the diet contained trans fatty acids, LDL cholesterol increases and HDL cholesterol decreases.

The studies supporting the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council only addressed the issue of the effect of palm oil on blood cholesterol levels and not its total effect regarding cardiovascular diseases.