Ripeness classification of oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) during harvesting is important to ensure that they are harvested during optimum stage for maximum oil production. This paper presents the application of color vision for automated ripeness classification of oil palm FFB. Images of oil palm FFBs of type DxP Yangambi were collected and analyzed using digital image processing technique...

The oil palm, an economically important tree, has been one of the world's major sources of edible oil and a significant precursor of biodiesel fuel. Unfortunately, it now faces the threat of a devastating disease. Many researchers have identified Ganoderma boninense as the major pathogen that affects the oil palm tree and eventually kills it. But identification of the pathogen is just the first...

The rapid increase of palm oil (PO) production in the last 20 years has made it the most important oil in the world. By year 2007, the annual global production of PO reached 40 million metric tons. Currently, Malaysia accounts for almost 50% of world palm oil production. As most of natural oils, PO has only a limited application in their original form, as a consequence of its complex chemical c...

Diets that ameliorate the adverse effects of uric acid (UA) on renal damage deserve attention. The effects of casein or soya protein combined with palm or safflower-seed oil on various serum parameters and renal histology were investigated on hyperuricaemic rats. Male Wistar rats administered with oxonic acid and UA to induce hyperuricaemia were fed with casein or soya protein plus palm- or saf...

Extending the frying-life of oils is of commercial and economic importance. Due to this fact, assessment on the thermal stability of frying oils could provide considerable savings to the food processors. In this study, the physico-chemical properties of five palm products mainly palm oil, single-fractionated palm olein, double-fractionated palm olein, red palm olein and palm-based shortening du...

The cost of chemicals prohibits many technically feasible enhanced oil recovery methods to be applied in oil fields. It is shown that by-products from oil palm processing can be a source of valuable chemicals. Analysis of the pyrolysis oil from oil palm shells, a by-product of the palm oil industry, reveals a complex mixture of mainly phenolic compounds, carboxylic acids, and aldehydes. The phe...

Origin and Geographic Distribution Oil palm is native to Africa and it is assumed that speciation took place in that continent. However since all related species classifi ed in the subfamily Cocoideae have a South American origin (except perhaps the coconut, Cocos nucifera), the archetypal ancestor may have been indigenous to the Americas. Oil palm occurs in palm groves throughout the tropical ...