Palm Oil: Its Production And Uses

Palm oil is the product of processed Palm fruit from the Oil Palm tree. It is scientifically known as Elaeisguineensis .

Palm oil is the product of processed Palm fruit from the Oil Palm tree, scientifically known as Elaeisguineensis . The red or somehow orange-yellowish liquid is produced from Palm fruits of the Oil Palm trees which is one of the major economy crops of the Coastal and forest belt areas of Western Africa. Palm oil constituted the major product that took over the West African Coastal markets after the abolition of slave trade. Barrels were shipped daily from the West African Coast to Britain, Portugal, and America etc where it was used for many industrial purposes. In Nigeria, the Niger Delta Protectorate was code named Oil Rivers Protectorate not because of the crude oil but for the Palm Oil production in the area. In the 18th Century, crude oil was not yet discovered in the area but Palm Oil made the area so popular and attracted European merchants.

Production:

Palm oil production started in the early Centuries in the Coastal forest belt of the West African states and since then has improved from the local method to the use of industrial machines. When the palm fruits are ripened, it is harvested and packed in one place. Locally, it is left for some days to get softer in the bunch before extracting the reddish or orange-yellowish Palm fruits from the already weak bunch. The Palm fruits are cooked and pounded until the outer fleshy part of the fruit (the pulp) is mashed together.

At this stage, there are two ways used locally to extract the palm oil from the mashed pulp of the cooked Palm fruit: (1) the mashed pulp is poured into a big container and washed until the hard inner seed (kernel) is separated from the shafts of the fleshy pulp of the fruit. Both the shafts and the kernel are filtered out of the water and the water is cooked until the water dries up leaving the Palm oil in the pot. And (2) the mashed pulp and the kernel are put in jute bag and squeezed until the oil is extracted.

There are also Oil mills with machineries that cook, mill and extract the oil. This is a mechanize method which is mostly used in many areas now because of its enhanced efficiency in the production of the oil. It produces oil in an industrial scale as against the local method which produces for subsistence.

Uses of Palm Oil:

Palm oil, reddish or orange-yellow colour with sweet taste is used for cooking in West Africa and many other countries including Brazil. It is used to cook different kinds of soups and added to varieties of menus. Palm Oil is a major source of palmitic acid and it is used industrially for the manufacture of soaps and liniments. In the tropics, it’s always in liquid form but when kept under cooler temperatures, it hardens and become thick.

The chaffs from the production of palm oil is used as fuel to heat up the furnace while the kernel is cracked, pressed to extract another kind of oil known as pPalm Kernel Oil (PKO) which is used in the production of varieties of products like margarine, vegetable oil, candle and soap etc. The chaff from the production of the Palm Kernel Oil is used as animal feed.