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Stearoyl-ACP desaturase (SAD) is an important fatty acid biosynthetic enzyme responsible for the production of oleic acid. It is a soluble enzyme in the plastid which introduces a cis double bond into saturated stearoyl-ACP (18:0-ACP) at the ∆9 position to produce mono-unsaturated oleoyl-ACP (18:1-ACP) (Figure 1). It has an important housekeeping role for producing unsaturated … Read more

Novel palm oil compositions are needed to meet the demand of the expanding oil business and changing market requirements. Genetic engineering provides the opportunity to diversify the use and improve the economic value of palm oil. Reported successes in changing fatty acid compositions in other crops provide examples of how in vitro gene technology can … Read more

Malaysia is facing an acute shortage of agricultural land. One of the alternatives is to go for marginal areas such as hilly land and peat. Through R&D, these areas can be cultivated with oil palm with good returns in spite of high development cost. In the hilly areas, oil palm planted on terraces is much … Read more

The ever increasing cost of production and poor commodity prices as a result of greater market competition have compelled the plantation industry to look for improved production techniques to reduce costs in order to maximize profits. One way towards achieving the above objective is through mechanization of the harvesting process. With mechanization, workers’ productivity and … Read more

Current commodities market competition and agriculture regulations are forcing the oil palm industry to seek more competitive management methods to produce palm oil. With the development of geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), variable-rate technology (VRT) and remote sensing technology (RS), many oil palm plantations in this country have started adopting precision agriculture … Read more