ABSTRACT
For many years now, palm oil has proved to be the most productive, highest yielding oil crop. Its yield is 4-10 times higher compared to that of any other vegetable oil, a factor that has helped palm oil in becoming what is today the most consumed vegetable oil in the world (Alias et al., 2014, see Fig. 1). Palm oil is derived from the fruit of a specific species of palm tree, known as Elaeis guineensis. There are two types of oil that can be produced from the fruit of oil palm. The first type of oil is extracted from the flesh of the fruit and is used in a variety of applications, mostly in food, where its properties make it especially suited to be used as cooking oil, or in margarines, as substitutes of cocoa butter, and also as a replacement for milk fat. The second type of oil is derived from the palm fruit kernel. Derivatives of this palm kernel oil can be utilized in cosmetics and other speciality applications. Of the goods that are present on the shelves of the stores, over half of them contain palm oil as an ingredient.
