An Overview of the Oil Palm Industry: Challenges and Some Emerging Opportunities for Nanotechnology Development

Abstract

The increase in the world’s oil demand due to the rise of the global population urges more research into the production of sustainable vegetable oilseeds, among which palm oil is the most suitable candidate as it is the most efficient oilseed crop in the world. In an effort to drive the oil palm industry in the areas of food safety and security nanotechnology could offer a sustainable alternative. However, the utilization of nanotechnology in the oil palm industry is still limited. In this review, we aim to encourage the researchers to fully utilize nanotechnology as an alternative solution to tackle the challenges faced by the oil palm industry. Moreover, we also aim to highlight the opportunities for nanotechnology development in oil palm-based related research. The major points are as follows: (1) Nanosensing enables real-time monitoring of plantation status and crop progression, including soil, water and nutrient management, early pest/disease detection, and the spreading of pests/diseases. The use of nanosensing conveniently extends into advanced breeding topics, such as the development of disease-tolerant plants; (2) Nanotechnology could be the answer for the development of integrated management of pest and disease. Active agricultural ingredients can be entrapped or encapsulated into nanocarrier systems to improve their solubility, stability, enhance their efficient delivery to site-specific targets, with longer shelf life, and consequently improved efficacy; (3) Valuable nanomaterials can be isolated and generated from oil palm biomass waste. The utilization of oil palm biomass waste could overcome the issue of the massive production of waste in the oil palm industry and palm oil mills, where oil only accounts for 10% of the biomass, while 90% is comprised of the generated biowastes. (4) Palm oil can be utilized as a green alternative as a capping and stabilizing agent in the biosynthesis of metallic and non-metallic nanoparticles. In addition, nanoemulsion formulations using palm oil in drug delivery systems offer advantages such as low toxicity, enhance bioavailability and solubility of the drugs, apart from being inexpensive and environmentally friendly.

Low-Energy Separation Technique on Purification of Unsaturated Fatty Acids of Palm Stearin using Methanol Crystallization Method

“…Palm oil is a major industrial crop product in tropical countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Africa, and Thailand (Mutsaers 2019). The crude oil derived from the fresh fruit bunches of the oil palm species E. guineensis (Maluin et al 2020). It presents bright orange-red due to the high content of carotene (Laura 2017).…”

Effect of storage time on physical properties of sonocrystallized all‐purpose shortening

“…Among the lipids, palm oil is the most commonly used in the food industry via various processes, such as interesterification, fractionation, or blending, due to its unique characteristics (Nor Aini & Miskandar, 2007; Omar et al., 2015). Palm oil contains a balanced amount of unsaturated and saturated fatty acids (mainly oleic and palmitic acid, respectively) (Maluin, Hussein, & Idris, 2020; Nguyen, Rimaux, Truong, Dewettinck, & Bockstaele, 2020), is free of trans‐fats (West & Rousseau, 2017), and its high content of saturated fatty acids provide consistency in structure and texture to products (Dian, 2018; Nor Aini & Miskandar, 2007). In addition, palm oil is a semisolid material at ambient temperature (Nor Aini & Miskandar, 2007), and it has high oxidative stability from intrinsic antioxidants such as tocopherols (Dian, 2018; Nguyen et al., 2020).…”

Pulp and paper production from oil palm empty fruit bunches: A current direction in Malaysia

“…Zero-waste oil palm production utilized the oil palm biomass in order to create nanocellulose and nanomaterials, especially in the exploration of nanotechnology (Burhani & Septevani, 2018). The production of fertilizers and fungicides, as well as agro-chemicals could enhance the oil palm yield, stabilize the pest and disease control, and increase the oil extraction rate (Maluin et al, 2020). The EFB is simultaneously available along with the development of the palm oil industry.…”