Lecture 24
Tropical Oil Palms

Palm family = Palmaceae = Palmae = Arecaceae
Over 4000 species.
Oilpalm (Elaeis guineensis) originates in west and central Africa

Tree

An unbranched moneocious palm; 40-50 leaves (24/year), 10-11m at 25 to 35 years.

Fruit

A drupe with fleshy mesocarp and hard endocarp which surround one, usually two, and occasionally 3 seeds.

The oil of the mesocarp is orange red = palm oil.

This is the most important product.

The oil of the seed is colorless = palm kernel oil.

Ratio of palm oil to palm kernel oil is about 10:1.

Niney percent of all palm oil is used for food.

Palm kernel oil, similar to coconut oil is fractionated or hydrogenated for use in confectionery and also used for industrial purposes either as an alternative to coconut oil in the manufacture of high-quality soaps or as a source of short chain and medium chain fatty acids used as intermediates in the manufcture of fatty alcohols, esters, amines, amides, and more sophisticated chemcials which have a multitude of end-uses.

In Brazil palm oil is known as dende and is slightly red; imparts a special flavor to cooking.

No. of Carbons Palm Oil Kernel Oil

8 3

10 6

12 50

14 1 16

16 50 6

18 3 1

18:1 40 17

18:2 6 1

Fruit bunches contain 500-4000 fruits (up to 30g/fruit). Fruits take 5-6 months to mature. Palm oil is 70-75% oil, source of glycerin. Residue is used for cattle feed. The shell is used as fuels for the mill.

Oil Palm: 2001 World Production

1000MT

Continent Palm Kernel Palm Oil Chief countries (palm oil)

World 4,353 118,794

Africa     723   15,080 Nigeria (8,000), Ivory Coast (1,771), Ghana (1,050)

North America       52     1,854 Costa Rica (650), Honduras (620), Guatemala (295)

South America     356     5,159 Columbia (2,550), Ecuador (1,540), Brazil (388)

Asia 3,149   95,543 Malaysia (56,600), Indonesia (34,750), Thailand (3,343)

Oceania       72     1,158 Papua New Guinea (1,030), Solomon (128)

From 1968 to 1978 production increased 10% per year, 94% came from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Ecology

Requires 24-28C; lowland equatorial, to 500m.

Moisture must be sufficient to insure the absence of stress.

Propagation

Seed propagation - nut is enclosed in polyethylene and exposed to 38-40C; Modern plantations use hybrid seed.

Tissue culture - asexual embryos form from roots and allows clonal propagation but there have been problems with somaclonal variation.

A particular feature of the oil palm with considerable economic consequences is the occurrence of three natural fruit types under monogenic control, which form also the basis for the classification of oil palm.

Dura: homozygous (Sh Sh) for the presence of a relatively thick endocarp (shell 2-8 mm), 25-55% of fruit
Mesocarp = 35-65%
Kernel = 7-20%

Tenera: heterozygous (Sh sh) with a relatively thin endocarp (0.5-4 mm), 1-32%
Mesocarp = 60-95%
Kernel = 3-15%

Pisifera: homozygous (sh sh) for the absence of an endocarp. STERILE

Thick shelled dura as seed parent × shell-less pisifera as pollen parent thin shelled tenera
Sh Sh × sh sh –> Sh sh

Oil yields can be very high, up to 4.5t/ha (2 tons/acre) - now 4.8-7t/ha oil

Culture

Planting: 160 trees/ha (8.5 x 8.5 in triangular pattern.
No pruning except removal of dead leaves for sanitary reasons.

Harvest: Throughout the year after the 3rd year.
Cut by hand.
Production is usually 30t/ha of bunches.

Uses

The mesocarp produce one product, palm oil

The palm kernel produces both oil and high protein cake (used as feed stock)

The future is bright for palm oil because it is the highest yielding oil crop.

It is estimated that if oil yields of 12t/ha/year could be achieved itwould make it a potential energy oil crop.

The only problem at present is that high saturation of palm oil makes it "unhealthy" compared to such alternatives as canola oil produced in temperate areas.

However palm oil is much cheaper and it still widely used.

Oil palm, Brazil

African oil palm