A recurring question about the oils is palm oil. Many questions arise with large quantities of palm oil on the market. Palm oil, palm crude oil, refined palm, palm olein, palm stearin, palm organic, palm kernel oil, are the designations referring to oils obtained from the fruit of the palm Elaeis guineensis, also known as dende tree. The Elaeis guineesis is native in tropical regions, about 10 degrees above and below the equator. In Brazil, in the Amazon region, with large areas of cultivation in the state of Pará and Amazonia and to a lesser extent in Bahia.
Elaeis guineesis
The largest producers are Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Colombia. Brazil occupies a position of 13 ° global producer.
A peculiar feature of the fruit of the oil palm is that it produces two types of oil: from pulp (mesocarp) is extracted the palm oil and kernel the palm kernel oil (PKO). The fatty acid composition of these oils are completely different. In palm oil predominate palmitic and oleic and in palm kernel oil, lauric and myristic, it which is very much similar to that of babassu and coconut.
Elaeis guineesis fruit
The pulp and consequently the crude palm oil has a yellow to orange-red attributed to the amounts of carotenoids in fruits and also at the level of oxidation that has undergone the fruit to be kept stored before being processed.