Valorisation of palm by‐products as functional components

Abstract

Valorisation of palm by‐products increases business opportunities for stakeholders in the palm oil industry. The approach also paves the way for structuring an eco‐efficient industry that recognises the importance of sustainable development for continued growth and competitiveness. Research underway in the palm oil industry has revealed a range of bioactives that can be used as functional components for food products that enhance health. Crude palm oil with 500–700 mg/kg of carotenes is one of the richest plant sources of provitamin A. Tocopherols and tocotrienols are also present in the oil at significant levels of between 600 and 1000 mg/kg. Besides the oil, by‐products of palm oil milling and refining also contain bioactives. Tocopherols and tocotrienols are concentrated in the palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), a by‐product of physical refining of palm oil. Sterols and squalene can also be recovered from PFAD. Palm pressed fibres contain extractable phytochemicals such as sterols, vitamin E, carotenoids, phospholipids, squalene and phenolics. Water‐soluble palm phenolics have been successfully extracted from aqueous by‐products generated from the mill. These palm extracts show superior antioxidant potential and are earmarked for applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and cosmeticeuticals.

Determination of oil palm fruit phenolic compounds and their antioxidant activities using spectrophotometric methods

“…The extraction of palm oil is a wet process. Life steam is injected during the sterilisation and digestion steps of palm oil milling resulting in several classes of water‐soluble compounds in the oil palm fruit leaching into the steriliser condensate and the aqueous by‐products of the palm oil milling process (Tan et al. , 2007).…”

Oil palm vegetation liquor: a new source of phenolic bioactives

“…Indeed, the oil palm is a rich source of phytochemicals ( 11 – 13 ) . While the technology for recovery of fat-soluble antioxidants such as tocopherols, tocotrienols and carotenoids from palm oil is well established ( 11 ) , it is only recently that the technology for harvesting water-soluble antioxidants from oil palm has become available ( 12 , 14 – 17 ) .…”

Gene Expression Changes in Spleens and Livers of Tumour-Bearing Mice Suggest Delayed Inflammation and Attenuated Cachexia in Response to Oil Palm Phenolics

“…Incidentally, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) contains various lipid-soluble phytochemicals which possess significant anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties, such as carotenoids, tocopherols and tocotrienols [18,19,20]. Water-soluble phenolics extracted from the oil palm vegetation liquor [21], termed oil palm phenolics (OPP) [22], also showed significant biological activities against cancer cells in vitro [23] and in vivo [23,24].…”