The oil palm is the most productive of oil-bearing plant species. Commercial plantations in Malaysia are known to yield between 3-5 tonnes of crude palm oil/hectare/year which is about 10 times yield of oil obtained from other oilseed crops. Crude palm oil/olein is also known to contain a significant amount (0.05-0.07%) of carotenes which is responsible for the distinctive deep red-orange colouration of the oil. At that level of carotenes concentration, crude palm oil/olein is easily one of the richest sources of natural carotenes. Ironically under the current practices of refining crude oil i.e by the chemical or the physical refining process, all the valuable and nutritionally important carotenes are destroyed.

Main Researcher: Mohd Suria Affandi