| Elaeis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Arecales |
| Family: | Arecaceae |
| Subfamily: | Arecoideae |
| Tribe: | Cocoseae |
| Genus: | Elaeis Jacq. |
| Species | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
Elaeis (from Greek 'oil') is a genus ofpalms, calledoil palms, containing two species, native to Africa and the Americas. They are used in commercialagriculture in the production ofpalm oil.
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Mature palms are single-stemmed, and can grow well over 20 m (66 ft) tall. Theleaves arepinnate, and reach between 3–5 m (10–16 ft) long. Theflowers are produced in dense clusters; each individual flower is small, with three sepals and three petals.
The palm fruit is reddish, about the size of a large plum, and grows in large bunches. Each fruit is made up of an oily, fleshy outer layer (the pericarp), with a singleseed (thepalm kernel), also rich in oil.
The two species,E. guineensis (Africa) andE. oleifera (Americas) can produce fertilehybrids. Thegenome ofE. guineensis has been sequenced, which has important implications for breeding improved strains of the crop plants.[2]
E. guineensis is native to west and southwestAfrica, occurring betweenAngola andGambia. The American oil palm,E. oleifera (from Latin oleifer 'oil-producing'),[3] is native to tropicalCentral andSouth America[4] from Honduras to northern Brazil, and is used locally for oil production.
Since palm oil contains moresaturated fats than oils made from canola, corn, linseed, soybeans, safflower, and sunflowers, it can withstand extreme deep-frying heat and resists oxidation.[5] It contains notrans fat, and its use in food has increased as food-labelling laws have changed to specify trans fat content. Oil fromElaeis guineensis is also used asbiofuel.
Human use of oil palms may date back to about 5,000 years in coastal west Africa. Palm oil was also discovered in the late 19th century by archaeologists in a tomb atAbydos dating back to 3000BCE.[6] It is thought that Arab traders brought the oil palm to Egypt.[citation needed]
Elaeis guineensis is now extensively cultivated in tropical countries outside Africa, particularlyMalaysia andIndonesia which together produce most of the world supply, as well as domestically in the Americas.
Palm oil is typically considered the most controversial of the cooking oils – for political, health, and environmental reasons.[7] Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny forsocial and environmental harm, particularly becauserainforests with highbiodiversity are destroyed,greenhouse gas output is increased, and because people are displaced by palm-oil enterprises and traditional livelihoods are negatively impacted. Especially in Indonesia, there is also growing pressure for palm oil producers to prove that they are not harming rare animals in the cultivation process.[8]
In 2018 aChristmas TV advertisement by UK supermarket chainIceland Foods Ltd, produced byGreenpeace, was banned by the UK advertising watchdogClearcast,[9] as it was deemed too political. This was an animated short, starring a fictional orangutan named Rang-tan produced to raise awareness of the environmental impact of the production of palm oil, and the dangers orangutans face as a result. Iceland Foods had committed to banning palm oil from its own-brand products by the end of 2018.[10]
Almost all wildlife declines in bothdiversity andabundance in oil palm plantations.[11]
Elaeis was found to be a cheap source ofnanofiber by Fahma et al 2010. It is especially suited to production inIndonesia wherecellulosic waste is already an abundant byproduct.[12]
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