Month: February 2020

Hexaconazole is a systemic fungicide widely used to control fungal pathogen in a variety of crops. In Malaysia, hexaconazole is used to inhibit the spread of Ganoderma infection from infected oil palm (Idris et al., 2004). Ganoderma can cause the disease basal stem rot (BSR) in oil palm and the spreading of the infection, if not … Read more

Acetamiprid is a neo-nicotinoid insecticide that is effective against sucking insects such as aphids, and chewing insects such as Coleoptera and some Lepiodoptera. Analysis of acetamiprid residue involves the use of expensive and sophisticated instruments such as the Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectometry, LC-MSMS (Figure 1). This has hindered members of the industry from carrying … Read more

A database on characteristics of palm oil-based products gathers together important physiochemical characteristics of palm oil and palm kernel oil and their fractions, i.e. palm olein and palm stearin of various iodine values, palm kernel stearin and palm mid-fraction of various iodine values. Characteristics of oil and fat blends containing palm-based products are also included … Read more

Herbicides and insecticides are the main pesticides used in oil palm plantations. Being relatively cheap, insecticides such as cypermethrin often used to protect the oil palm against leaf-eating insects. However, insecticide residues in food and food ingredients is of great concern. As such, reliable analytically methods for the detection and qualification of insecticide residues in palm oil and palm … Read more

Hydroxyl value is defined as the number of hydroxyl end-groups per gram of a sample. It is a very important quality parameter, and a typical measure to determine molecular weight and calculate the functionality of polyols. A polyols is an alcohol with more then two reactive hydroxly groups per molecule. Polyols are the starting material for … Read more

To date, palm oil mills have generally complied with the 100ppm BOD requirement of POME discharged into a watercourse. However, the current 20ppm requirement by the Department of Environment (DOE) in some sensitive areas, especially those involving tourism activities in Sabah and Sarawak, is difficult to comply with due to uncertainties in the performance of … Read more

Crude petroleum contains sulphur compounds and most of them are removed during the refining process. The presence of some sulphur compounds remaining in the diesel  fuel can have a corrosion, it is used as an indicator of the cohesiveness of a fuel. Main Research: Yung Chee Lian

Cetane number is a defined parameter designed to provide an indication of the ignition quality of diesel fuels. A higher cetane number means that the fuel has better ignition quality than fuels with lower cetane numbers. Cetane number is a measure of a fuel’s ignition delay, which is the time period between the start of … Read more

With the growing focus today on noise-control issues and the emergence of sound quality as an important aspect of product design, acoustic material testing is becoming increasingly relevant to researchers, engineers, designers and manufactures from a broad range of industries. Products like bio-composites, fibre-reinforced plastics, felt and insulators are being used as sound dampening components, … Read more

Mycorrhizas are symbiotic associations that are formed between the roots of most plant species and soil fungi (Bagyaraj, 1984). Benefits of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) associations include improved nutrient uptake by fungi, extending their hyphae through the plant roots into the surrounding soil and transporting the nutrients directly into the plant. Numerous studies also suggests that … Read more