Pericarp - outer oily flesh
Endosperm - oil-rich kernel

Elaeis guineensis is a tropical forest palm native to  Africa. Grown in plantations it produces 3–8 times more oil from a given area.

Oil (triacylglycerols) can be extracted from both the fruit and the seed, crude palm oil (CPO) from the outer mesocarp and palm-kernel oil from the endosperm.

Traditionally, breeding of oil palm has focused on :
1) yield improvement in FFB and oil content
2) slow height increment
3) oil quality
4) disease tolerance.

Oil Palm industry is placing emphasis on the production of Dwarf palms (PSI type) – to reduce the palm height increment and significantly extend the economic cropping cycle.

Present Malaysian Oil Palm Industry is breeding the following 3 new type of oil palm plants :
1) Breeding for high unsaturated oil (High iodine value) (PS2 type) – to produce materials with higher proportions of unsaturated fatty acids by crosses with high iodine value Nigerian duras and E guineensis x E. oleifera hybrids.
2) Breeding for high lauric oil (PS3 type) – using high yielding Nigerian dura palms with high kernel contents
3) Breeding for high carotenoid content (PS4 type) – using selected Nigerian duras and pisiferas as well as hybridisation with E. oleifera.
 

Oil palm is cross-pollinated and the key pollinating agent is the weevil, Elaeidobius kamerunicus Faust.

In the past, oil palm was thought to be wind pollination and owing to the low level of natural pollination, assisted pollination is a standard management practice in plantations.

However, this practice was discontinued following the discovery that oil palm was insect pollinated and the introduction of E. kamerunicus from the Cameroons, West Africa in 1982 (Syed et al, 1982).

Harvesting commences about 24 to 30 months after planting and each palm can produce between eight to 15 fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per year weighing about 15 to 25 kg each, depending on the planting material and age of the palm (Plate 1).

Each FFB contains about 1000 to 1300 fruitlets; each fruit let consists of a fibrous meoscarp layer, the endocarp (shell) which contains the kernel (Plate 2).

Present day planting materials are capable of producing 39 tones of FFB per ha and 8.6 tones of palm oil and actual yields from good commercial plantings are about 30 tones FFB per ha with 5.0 to 6.0 tones oil (Henson. 1990).

At the national level, the average FFB yield in 2001 was 19.14 tones while palm oil productivity was 3.66 tones per ha.

Cultivars or races of E. guineensis can be differentiated by their fruit pigmentation and characteristics; the most common cultivars being the Dura, Tenera and Pisifera which are classified according to endocarp or shell thickness and mesocarp content.

1) Dura palms have 2-8mm thick endocarp and medium mesocarp content (35%-55% of fruit weight)
2) Tenera palms  have 0.5-3mm thick endocarp and high mesocarp content of 60%-95%
3) Pisifera palms have not endocarp and about 95% mesocarp (Latiff, 2000).

Commonly known as the oil palm is the most important species in the genus Elaeis which belongs to the family Palmae.

Cultivars or races of E. guineensis can be differentiated by their fruit pigmentation and characteristics; the most common cultivars being the Dura, Tenera and Pisifera which are classified according to endocarp or shell thickness and mesocarp content.

1	2	3
Dura palms	Tenera palms	Pisifera palms
have 2-8mm thick endocarp and medium mesocarp content (35%-55% of fruit weight)	have 0.5-3mm thick endocarp and high mesocarp content of 60%-95%	have not endocarp and about 95% mesocarp.

Although significantly lower in oil-to-bunch content than its African counterpart, E. oleifera has a higher level of unsaturated fatty acids and has been used for production of interspecfic hybrids with E. guineensis.

African Oil Palm - Elaeis guineensis

Originally from West Africa, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has spread throughout the tropics countries.

An Elaeis guineensis standing alone by a Malaysian road side.

On the distant background is the Palm Oil Mill (with 2 chimney) that process the fruits into crude oil for export.

1) detergents
2) cosmetics
3) plastics
4) surfactants
5) herbicides
6) industrial chemicals
7) agricultural chemicals

Oil palm (or Elaesis guineensis) originated from the coastal swamplands and freshwater riverines of Central and West Africa.

The Oil Palm was first introduced into the then Malaya in 1870 when it was the regarded as an ornamental plant. It was almost fifty years later that its commercial viability as an estate crop was recognized and the first commercial oil palm plantation was started at Tennamaran Estate, Batang Berjuntai in Selangor.

In the sixties, with the increasing demand for edible oils in the world market, coupled with the mounting threat of synthetic rubber, Malaysia embarked on a vast planned agricultural diversification programme. New lands were opened up and old rubber lands were replanted with oil palm. The area under oil palm cultivation was 54, 000 hectares in 1960. Today, thirty years later, the area under cultivation has reached 2,000,000 hectares.

Sixty years after the first commercial planting on an estate basis, Malaysia has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil. However, this position is over taken by Indonesia today. The production has dramatically increased from 92,000 tonnes in 1960 to an estimated 6,000,000 tonnes for the year 1989.