Palm oil and its products are used widely, either on their own or in combination with other oils and fats, to make products for cooking and other applications such as baking, icing, filling and topping. Palm oil and its products are not only cheaper to process but also impart into the product the functional properties demanded by some of these applications. Legislation governing production and marketing of these products in some of the important countries is reviewed. The physico‐chemical characteristics of products marketed in different countries are also presented. Formulations based on palm oil and its products are suggested to make low or notrans acid fats and high PUFA fats.

Malaysia, the leading producer of palm oil, is now also the major producer and exporter of processed palm oil (PPO). Since 1977 she has been exporting PPO in increasing amounts. As a result about 50% of world production of palm oil is now traded as PPO in the international market. Currently, Malaysia has processing capacity far exceeding her production of crude palm oil. Guaranteed capacities for physical refining, fractionation and chemical neutralization are 12,075, 9,940 and 4,949 metric tons (MT) per day, respectively. These can be increased to 16,285, 12,705 and 6,170 MT per day, respectively, by some modification and rationalization. Thus Malaysia is geared to cope with increased production of PPO at least up to 1990. The PPO products exported are the results of primary down streaming of crude palm oil. The production and export of these products are very well established. The emphasis is now on further down‐streaming of PPO products into specialized products such as food ingredients, nonfood applications and finished products such as shortenings, margarines, cocoa butter replacer fats and oleochemicals both for local consumption and export. By the end of the decade, Malaysia is likely to become a center for the manufacture of basic oleochemicals and their derivatives.

Salinity is one of the predominant abiotic stress factors that influence the growth and productivity of plants. Salinity adversely impacts the growth responses via ionic toxicity, osmotic stress, impaired nutrients uptake, hormonal disparity, and the over-production of reactive oxygen species. To study the effects of salinity stress (0, 50, 100, and 150 mM) and foliar treatments (dH2O, 2 g L−1 Dobogen biostimulant, 2 g L−1 KNO3, and 2 g L−1d-glucose) on the growth and physiological responses of Tanacetum balsamita, a factorial experiment was conducted based on the completely randomized design at the research greenhouse of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Iran. The results showed the significant interaction effects of salinity and foliar sprays on chlorophyll a, K+, Na+, Mg2+, Fe2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, and Si content, K/Na ratio, and total phenolics and flavonoids content. The highest phenolic content was acquired with 100 mM salinity and foliar spray of Dobogen and glucose, 50 mM NaCl × KNO3 application, and 50 mM salinity × no-foliar application. The highest K/Na ratio was observed in control plants and controls × KNO3 and/or Dobogen application. The greatest Si content was recorded with no-salinity × Dobogen and KNO3 applications and no-saline × no-foliar (control) plants. The independent effects of treatments influenced malondialdehyde, flavonoids, proline contents, and catalase activity. Chlorophyll b and superoxide dismutase were affected by the salinity. Total soluble solids and Ca2+ content were responsive to the foliar applications. Malondialdehyde and proline content was the highest at 150 mM salinity. Salinity adversely affected the physiological responses of costmary. However, foliar treatments partially ameliorated the salinity effect, and the results with more detailed studies would be advisable to the extension section and pioneer farmers.

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