Elaeis () is a genus of Arecaceae, called oil palms, containing two species, native to Africa and the Americas. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil.
Description
Mature palms are single-stemmed, and can grow well over tall. The
leaf are
pinnate, and reach between long. The
are produced in dense clusters; each individual flower is small, with three sepals and three petals.
The palm fruit is reddish, about the size of a large plum, and grows in large bunches. Each fruit is made up of an oily, fleshy outer layer (the pericarp), with a single seed (the palm kernel), also rich in oil.
Species
The two species,
E. guineensis (Africa) and
Elaeis oleifera (Americas) can produce fertile hybrids. The
genome of
E. guineensis has been sequenced, which has important implications for breeding improved strains of the crop plants.
Distribution and habitat
E. guineensis is native to west and southwest
Africa, occurring between
Angola and
Gambia. The American oil palm,
E. oleifera (),
is native to tropical
Central America and
South America[Collins Guide to Tropical Plants, ] from Honduras to northern Brazil, and is used locally for oil production.
Uses
Commercial palm oil cultivation
Since palm oil contains more
than oils made from canola, corn, linseed, soybeans, safflower, and sunflowers, it can withstand extreme deep-frying heat and resists oxidation.
It contains no
trans fat, and its use in food has increased as food-labelling laws have changed to specify trans fat content. Oil from
Elaeis guineensis is also used as
biofuel.
Human use of oil palms may date back to about 5,000 years in coastal west Africa. Palm oil was also discovered in the late 19th century by archaeologists in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3000 BCE.
Elaeis guineensis is now extensively cultivated in tropical countries outside Africa, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia which together produce most of the world supply, as well as domestically in the Americas.
Controversy
Palm oil is typically considered the most controversial of the cooking oils – for political, health, and environmental reasons.
Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny for social and environmental harm, particularly because
rainforests with high
biodiversity are destroyed,
greenhouse gas output is increased, and because people are displaced by palm-oil enterprises and traditional livelihoods are negatively impacted. Especially in Indonesia, there is also growing pressure for palm oil producers to prove that they are not harming rare animals in the cultivation process.
In 2018 a Christmas TV advertisement by UK supermarket chain Iceland Foods Ltd, produced by Greenpeace, was banned by the UK advertising watchdog Clearcast,
Almost all wildlife declines in both diversity and abundance in oil palm plantations.[
]
Fiber
Elaeis was found to be a cheap source of
nanofiber by Fahma et al 2010. It is especially suited to production in
Indonesia where
cellulose waste is already an abundant byproduct.
See also
-
Attalea maripa, another oil-producing palm
-
Energy and the environment
-
Journal of Oil Palm Research
-
List of Arecaceae genera
-
Social and environmental impact of palm oil
External links
