TT

Lipase is the first enzyme involved in the degradation of stored lipids. The increase in free fatty acid (FFA) levels in palm oil is attributed to the action of lipase. However, evidence as to the nature of the lipase has been contradictory. Oo (1981) and Tombs and Stubbs (1982) reported the absence of endogenous lipase … Read more

The Genome Analysis Laboratory for Oil Palm (GALOP) is a service and core facility which supports the research activities of MPOBís Advanced Biotechnology and Breeding Centre (ABBC). GALOP also extends DNA testing services to the oil palm industry for applications in tissue culture and breeding. Services currently being offered by GALOP include: i. DNA fingerprinting; … Read more

The Flameless Sterilizer** is an electrical device designed for heat sterilization of tissue culture (TC) glass containers (for mouth-rim region) and surgical apparatus. It is a replacement for the flaming process that is commonly conducted using a Bunsen burner or alcohol lamp. The sterilizer has a circular heating coil in the centre where the TC … Read more

As an alternative to culture on solid medium, the use of liquid culture for oil palm propagation has been attempted in order to explore its potential for automation and scaling-up propagule production as well as for improving growth and culture uniformity (de Touchet et al., 1991; Teixeira et al., 1995; Wong et al.,1999). However, a … Read more

The American oil palm, Elaeis oleifera (Figure 1) possesses attributes of interest such as slow height increment rate (Hardon and Tan, 1969; Obasola, 1973; Meunier and Boutin, 1975; Tam et al., 1977) and high I.V. (Hardon, 1969; Macfarlane et al., 1975). Lately, its high carotene content has been advocated as potentially useful for the pharmaceutical … Read more

The migration of labour in the agricultural sector to the industrial sector greatly necessitates the development of machines to replace the time-consuming and manual field activities. In the industrial sector, workers have lighter and easier job which are in contrast to the back-breaking job in oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) collection. With the assistance … Read more

Fertilizing young palm since its early stage is always necessary to establish vigorous healthy trees (Caliman et al., 2001). It is also often recognized that future performance of poorly fertilized palm during immaturity might be affected for its whole life cycle. Main Researcher: Salmah Jahis  Email: salmah@mpob.gov.my

Parasitoids and predators play a major role in regulating pest numbers, especially the bagworms and nettle caterpillars. A field study had revealed the importance of several species of parasitoids in regulating the bagworm numbers at low levels, which in effect is natural control (Basri et al., 1995). Main Researcher: Dr Norman Kamaruddin Email: norman@mpob.gov.my

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a rod-shaped 1-1.2 microns, gram positive, facultative anaerobic, spore forming bacterium. During sporulation, it produces insecticidal crystal proteins (ICP) or δ-endotoxins or Cry proteins. The primary insecticidal activity of Bt is due to the ICP. The Cry proteins were grouped according to their specific toxicity towards certain insect orders. Main Researcher: … Read more

Bagworm (Metisa plana) is one of the important leaf-eating pests of oil palm in Malaysia. Crop losses, due to the defoliation by a serious bagworm attack is inevitable. A moderate to serious bagworm defoliation may cause between 33%-47% reduction in yield (Wood et al., 1973; Basri, 1993). Main Researcher: Dr Mohd Basri Wahid