Palm Oil: Production, Processing, Characterization, and Uses vii

Preface
Palm oil is now the world’s largest vegetable oil by volume. With proven nutritional
benefits in addition to the presence of nutraceutical components, such as tocotrienols
and carotenoids, palm oil is consumed in over 150 countries worldwide. It plays a
pivotal role in the socioeconomic development of Asian, Latin American, and African
regions. In 2010, global production of oils and fats stood at 172.1 million tonnes.
Palm oil combined with palm kernel oil was the largest contributor to these, account-
ing for 51.6 million tonnes, or 30% of the total output. Of the 65 million tonnes of
oils and fats entering global trade, palm oil and palm kernel oil accounted for close to
61% of the total volume, or 39.6 million tonnes, with Malaysia having 45% of the
market share, dominating the international trade in palm oil.
The success of the palm oil industry in Malaysia, Indonesia, and elsewhere has
never been easy and has only gotten harder in recent years. Its success has often been
made more difficult by mistrust and misconceptions about the oil, its composition,
and its nutritional benefits. Thus, with this critical issue in mind, this book has been
assembled with the hope of being an authoritative, comprehensive, and highly infor-
mative compilation of recent advances and issues in various important areas of palm
oil industry—from the production, processing, and characterization to the utilization
of palm oil and its components.
The topics herein deal with both the production and processing of palm oil and
kernels, and more importantly, the editors attempted to provide an international per-
spective to this area by drawing experts from around the world, especially Malaysia,
Brazil, and Nigeria. Thus, this book has amassed diverse topics from these experts
in specific areas from across the globe. This book begins with a chapter on the his-
tory of oil palm and subsequently three chapters related to oil palm breeding, oil
palm genomics, tissue culture and genetic engineering of oil palm. The book also
includes several topics related to postharvest activities, pests, and diseases of oil palm.
Information on production of palm oil and palm kernel oil; physical, chemical, and
polymorphic properties of palm oil and its components; as well as the measurement
and maintenance of palm oil quality are included in the book, which may be of inter-
est to researchers, scholars, technologists, and food manufacturers. To understand the
importance of this plant-based oil, the variety of applications of palm and kernel oil,
and their fractions in food, nutritional and oleochemical products are included. The
potential use of palm oil as an alternative to trans fats in foods is also highlighted.
There are also special chapters dedicated to the use of palm biomass in various wood-
based products and as sources of bioenergy and biofuels. We have also included in-
depth accounts of three current issues on oil palm/palm oil that are garnering atten-
tion and becoming globally relevant, namely waste and environmental management,
trade and traceability, together with other issues relating to sustainable development
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 viii Palm Oil: Production, Processing, Characterization, and Uses

of the palm oil industry. All the chapters in this book are presented in a stand-alone
manner without the need to make references to other chapters in the book, thus
allowing each of the contributors to provide comprehensive reviews of their field of
expertise.
The editors have made every effort to select contributors who are internationally
recognized as experts in their field to develop the chapters and cover all relevant top-
ics in this book. To all the authors, we thank them for their outstanding efforts and
timely submission of their chapters. The editors would also like to thank the editorial
staff of AOCS Press for their helpful suggestions toward improving and coordinating
the timely publication of this book. We hope, you the readers, will find this book a
valuable read and a great addition and source of reference on the current develop-
ments in palm oil/oil palm industry.
Oi-Ming Lai
Chin-Ping Tan
Casimir C. Akoh