The livestock industry in Malaysia is growing in importance. Due to lack of local production, the industry relies heavily on the import of raw feed ingredients such as maize, soyabean and other grains. Monogastric animals such as cattle and poultry (Figures 1 and 2), the main consumers of these feed grain, suffer high production cost […]

Goose grass (Eleusine indica) (Figure 1) is a noxious weed in oil palm plantation in Malaysia. The weed is listed as one of the 10 worst weeds of the world (Lim and Ngim, 2000). E. indica competes strongly with oil palm for nutrient, water, light and space (Mohamad et al., 2010). Currently, application of herbicide […]

Basal stem rot (BSR) disease caused by the Ganoderma species is a serious problem to the oil palm industry (Idris, 2011; 2012). MPOB has introduced the Integrated Ganoderma Management (IGM) to find solution to the disease (Idris, 2011). Plant nutrients are primary components of disease control in many crops (McMahon, 2012). It was reported that […]

Biodegradability is one of the most important parameters for the environmental fate of a substance. There are three types of biodegradation process: Primary biodegradation is the measurement of conversion of an organic substance into different products by biological system. This is the first step in biodegradation. Readily biodegradation occurs when biodegradation performance is greater than […]

Isopropyl p-toluenesulphonic acid esters (IPTS) is a by-product that may be formed during synthesis of isopropyl palmitate (IPP) and isopropyl myristate (IPM). The synthesis route is via esterification of palmbased palmitic and palm kernel-based myristic acids, by reaction with isopropanol. Under certain reaction conditions (anhydrous, no base and high temperature) isopropyl alcohol may react with […]