ABSTRACT
The oil palm has been grown in Africa for thousands of years. The oldest traces of oil palm, in the form of pollen, date back to the Eocene period (Zaklinskaya and Prokofyev, 1971). Pollen has been found in all the current areas of oil palm cultivation in Africa from the Miocene period (23.03 Ma to 7.246 Ma) (Zeven, 1964). Oil palm has been cultivated in Egypt since 3000 BC (Friedel 1897 in Zeven, 1967).
