Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Oil palm tree. The oil palm is a tropical palm tree. A vegetable oil or vegoil is an oil extracted from oilseeds or another plant source. ... Fruit stall in Barcelona, Spain. ... Species Elaeis guineensis Elaeis oleifera The oil palms (Elaeis) coomprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. ...

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.

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). This article is about a common cleaning mixture. ...

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. Carotenoids are organic pigments naturally occurring in plants and some other photosynthetic organisms like algae, some types of fungus and some bacteria. ... Cooking oil is purified fat of plant or animal origin, which is liquid at room temperature. ... Margarine is a generic term used to indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. ...

Both palm and palm kernel oil are high in olefins, a potentially valuable chemical group that can be processed into many non-food products as well. An olefin is an alkene hydrocarbon. ...

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. Also, it is seen as a potential resource for producing the necessary vegetable oil for biodiesel. Bus running on soybean biodiesel. ...

The Oil palm originated in West Africa but has since been planted successfully in tropical regions within 20 degrees of the equator. The world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil today is Malaysia, producing about 50% of the world's supply of palm oil. West Africa is the region of western Africa generally considered to include these countries: Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Côte dIvoire (Ivory Coast) Equatorial Guinea Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Mali Niger Nigeria Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) Senegal Sierra Leone Togo Chad, Mauritania, and...

Indonesia is the second largest world producer of palm oil producing approx 30% of world palm oil volume.

Both nations are expanding the palm oil capacity and the market continues to grow.

There is evidence of palm oil use in Ancient Egypt. Map of Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was the civilization of the Nile Valley between about 3000 BC and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. As a civilization based on irrigation, it is the quintessential example of a hydraulic empire. ...

External links

• Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (http://www.sustainable-palmoil.org/)
• [http://www.daabon.com
• Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council (http://www.mpopc.org.my/)
• Physical properties of palm oil (http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/oele/palmoel/palmoel.htm)
• Another website on oil palm (http://www.fedepalma.org/oil_palm.htm)