Oil from palm

The palm bears its fruit in bunches varying in weight from 10 to 40 kg. The harvested bunches are termed fresh fruit bunches (FFBs). The individual fruit ranging from 6 to 20 gm are made up of an outer skin, a pulp containing the palm oil in a fibrous matrix; a central nut consisting of a shell and the kernel itself contains an oil, quite different to palm oil.

Palm oil
Flesh pericarp of palm fruit contains about 49% of palm oil. It is extracted promptly after harvesting from fleshy mesocarp of the palm fruit using continuous screw presses. It consists of a liquid fraction about 75% known as olein and a solid fraction about 25% known as stearin.

Palm oil is rich in carotenoids from which it derives its deep red color, and the major component of its glycerides is the saturated fatty acids palmitic; hence it is a viscous semi-solid, even at tropical ambient and a solid fat in temperate climates.

Palm kernel oil
Palm kernel oil is the seed oil contained in the kernel of the palm fruit. It contains about 50% oil. It is white or yellowish or light brown in color depending on the quality of the kernel stearin. Palm kernel oil is used in edible fats, in making ice-cream and mayonnaise, in baked goods and confectionaries.

Palm oil is an oleic oil, which is distinguish by its high percentage of the saturated palmitic acid. Palm-kernel oil is a lauric oil and to some degree exchangeable with coconut oil due to a similar fatty acid composition.
Oil from palm

Brain protection with tocotrienols

Palm oil has been shown to increase blood circulation in arteries that feed the brain, thus helping to maintain brain health and prevent strokes.

Mostly on the basis of symptoms of primary vitamin E deficiency, it has been demonstrated that vitamin E has a central role in maintaining neurological structure and function.

Studies have shown that palm tocotrienols are significantly effective in protecting the brain against damage caused by an assortment of oxidative toxins. Tocotrienols not only protects fats in brain cells but also proteins.

Many studies showed that tocotrienols-induced apoptosis results from the activation of specific intracellular cysteine proteases associated with death receptor activation and signal transduction.

Tocotrienols are protective in stroke-induced injuries. Natural palm tocotrienols complex fed to hypertensive rats led to increased tocotrienols levels in the brain, and more protection against stroke –induced injury compared to controls.
Brain protection with tocotrienols

Tocotrienols in palm oil

Vitamin E is one of the major essential vitamins. Since vitamin E is an essential nutrient for protecting the bio-membrane from oxidative damage, people have to take in sufficient amounts of vitamin E to maintain and promote nutritional health.

Vitamin E consists of two subgroups called tocopherols and tocotrienols. Tocotrienols are less common and belong to the vitamin E family and are potent lipid antioxidant. In foods, in which they occur, they are generally only found in small amounts.

Tocotrienols have become a focus of research in recent years because of new findings showing their high efficacy in protecting against heart-related diseases, including lowering of cholesterol and against certain cancers.

The sources with the largest amount of tocotrienols include wheat, barley, rice and most abundantly, the fruit of the palm from which palm oil is extracted.

Palm oil is by far the richest source of tocotrienols.

Palm oil is unique because it contains both tocotrienols and tocopherols unlike other vegetable oils some of which contain mainly alpha-tocopherol as the major tocopherol component.

The tumor protective effect of tocotrienols form palm oil was demonstrated by Komiyama and Yamoka (1993), Nesaretnam (1995), Guthrie (1997) and others.

The vitamin E fraction of palm oil, which is rich in tocotrienols, appears to be important in reducing certain tumors because palm oil stripped of the vitamin E does increase tumor yields.
Tocotrienols in palm oil

What are health benefits of palm oil?

Palm oil which is reddish brown, is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the palm. It has wide range of uses both food and non-food, 80% of oil produced serves as an important source of vegetable fat for an increasing number of people. Palm oil is often used in margarine and in commercially prepared gravies and soups.

Palm oil contains a rich source of beta-carotene which the body can convert into vitamin A.

The benefits of using palm oil extend beyond just supplying a source of vitamin A. Palm oil contains the highest amounts of natural antioxidants such as vitamin E – tocopherols and tocotrienols, and vitamin A – carotenoids.

Antioxidants help prevent aging, arthrosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Palm oil protect against many forms of cancer, including breast cancer.

Palm oil also improves the body’s ability to absorb other fat soluble nutrients such as vitamin D, E and K and improves the body’s ability to absorb important minerals such as calcium and magnesium.

Palm oil helps protect against heart disease. Palm oil does not contain cholesterol. Instead, vitamin E in palm oil lowers LDL (low density lipoprotein) and raise HDL (high density lipoprotein).

It also contains omega-6 fatty acid – linolenic acid, that can reduce cardiovascular disease. Research suggests that tocotrienols can reduce the risk of stroke.

Tocotrienols target specific pathways to protect against neural cell death and rescue the brain after stroke injury.
What are health benefits of palm oil?

Vitamin E and Palm Oil

Vitamin E and Palm Oil
Palm oil is a good source of Vitamin E. A fat-soluble vitamin, Vitamin E is an essential micronutrient for humans and consists of two series of compounds - tocopherols and tocotrienols.

Both are characterized by a side chain which is saturated in the tocopherols , but unsaturated in the tocotrienols.

Although tocopherols occur in several vegetable oils, palm oil represents one of the richest, natural sources of tocotrienols, which are also present in rice bran and barley.

The Vitamin E in palm oil is a mixture of different tocopherols (18-22%) and tocotrienols (78-82%). Alpha and gamma tocopherol each account for about 35% of total tocopherols, while gamma tocopherol accounts for about 10%.

Amongst the tocotrienols, the major ones are gamma tocotrienol (46%), alpha tocotrienol (22%) and delta tocotrienol (12%).

Recently, palm oil-derived tocotrienols have been extensively studied for their antioxidant capabilities, anti-cancer properties (for which there is strong supportive scientific evidence), as well as their ability to influence cholesterol metabolism.

Although some of the earlier studies suggested that supplementation with tocotrienols lowered cholesterol by affecting endogenous synthesis, a recent study noted no effect. This may in part be due to the fact that it is not yet resolved which of the tocotrienol isomers are involved.
Vitamin E and Palm Oil