Palm oil is also known as palm fruit oil. Palm oil is considered to be the nature’s best gift to the world. Being consumed for more than 5,000 years, its nutritional value, health benefit and significance as a natural resource continue to be discovered even today.
Palm oil is produced from the fruit of the oil palm tree, known as “Elaeis guineensis”. Oil
palm is the only fruit that can produce two types of oil.
Since palm oil is a vegetable oil; not an animal or dairy product, therefore it does not contain cholesterol. Virgin palm oil is rich in carotenoids (pro Vitamin A), tocotrienols and tocopherols (Vitamin E) and contains no transfatty acids.
Being the second-most widely produced edible oil after soybean oil, 28 million metric tons of palm oil were produced worldwide in 2004. It might have now surpassed soybean oil as the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world.
Since its introduction, oil palm is currently a leading agricultural crop. Increase planting, cultivation and refinement have led to the introduction of a wide range of processed palm oil products.
Today, palm fruit oil and palm oil products are being used in many food and non-food applications. They can be used for frying as well as for making margarines, shortenings, soap, oleo chemicals and many other products.