Palm carotene production technologies – A membrane perspective

Abstract

Palm fruit mesocarp and palm oil matrix contain valuable minor substances such as carotene, tocopherol and tocotrienol. Carotene convey important nutritional function which are pro vitamin A activity and antioxidant. Therefore, numerous studies have been developed to establish method of preparing carotene preserved red palm olein. Furthermore, the review of carotene concentrate production through palm oil transesterification into fatty acid methyl ester and its successive concentration methods will be presented. Post treatment stage includes particularly saponification process and could involve membrane technology. A perspective on the potential application of membrane based methods in carotene concentrate production stages will be briefly discussed.