It is generally agreed that the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) originated from the equatorial tropical rain forest region of Africa, precisely along the gulf of guinea.
Oil palm is a perennial monocot of the Arecaceae family. It is the most important and the highest oil yielding tropical crop in the world with world average oil yield of 3.5 t of palm oil per hectare per year. Oils obtained from its fruits are crude palm oil extracted from the mesocarp and palm kernel oil extracted from the kernel.
The plant grows over a period of years to a height of up to 15 m over a lifetime of 100 years or more. Its productive commercial life is between 20 and 30 years, after which harvesting becomes increasingly difficult, and yields decline slowly.
The oil palm is widely cultivated in many countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Central America and Sri Lanka. It was primarily cultivated as a source of edible oil. Apart from the production of edible oil, the empty fruit brunches have been utilized as feed stock for biofuel production. Production of biofuel from empty oil palm fruit brunches involves the enzymatic saccharification of the lignocellulosic biomass to produce fermentable sugars.
Palm oil plant
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