Some oils, like palm oil and olive oil when they are not extracted
with solvents, contain high levels of many compounds that are natural
antioxidants, and therefore they are well protected. Additionally, these
two oils do not contain much of the highly unstable polyunsaturated
fatty acids. ...
Coconut and palm kernel oils have much lower levels of long-chain saturate-equivalents, since 65 percent of
their fatty acids are medium-chain fatty acids. Palm oil is not usually
partially hydrogenated and does not have any trans fatty acids. ...
Another common misstatement is that the only hydrogenation
that increases saturates is hydrogenation of palm, palm kernel, coconut
oil and animals fats. This is completely incorrect. Hydrogenating the so
called tropical oils hardly changes the levels of saturated fatty acids at all. ...
The fats that humans have consumed for millennia, such as the
fats that they added to mixed dishes, were almost always more
saturated than they were unsaturated. It was the easily extractable fat
or oil, the fat that came from the animal, or in the case of areas such as
the tropics, it was the oil that came from the coconut or the palm fruit
that was used in cooking. Sometimes it was one of the very stable oils
like olive oil (or sesame paste) that had a lot of built-in antioxidant and
wasn't too polyunsaturated.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is extracted from the fruit flesh of the oil palm (Elaeis
guineensis) and is one of the most important edible oils in the world ...
Palm oil has been used for more than five thousand (5000) years in parts of the
world such as west Africa where it originated.
The palm fruit, which grows in bunches, is usually hand harvested.
Hand processing involves fermenting of the fruit, boiling and
crushing with collection of the oil that floats on the surface of the pot.
The oil content of the fruit ranges from 74 to 81 percent on a dry weight
basis. The crude fat that is extracted from the fruit is very colorful, either
red or orange, and is highly flavored. Palm oil is known to have high
levels of beta-carotene (the precursor to vitamin A), other carotenes, the
antioxidant tocopherols (vitamin E), and the antioxidant tocotrienols.
Some of the palm oil of commerce remains yellow due to high carotene
content. As a source of oil, the palm fruit is similar to the olive fruit in
that the oil is contained in the flesh of the fruit. The fatty acid
composition, however, is different.
Fractionated and refined palm oil has superior functional
properties as a bakery shortening and is used extensively in the
manufacture of baked goods in Europe. ...
Typical fatty acid composition of palm oil is 1 percent myristic
acid, 45 percent palmitic acid, 5 percent stearic acid, 39 percent oleic acid,
and 9 percent linoleic acid. Fractionation can increase levels of palmitic
acid to approximately 54 percent. Typical tocopherol and tocotrienol
(vitamin E) values are 256 mg/kg a-tocopherol, 316 mg/kg y
tocopherol, 70 mg/kg a-tocopherol, 146 mg/kg a-tocotrienol, 32 mg/kg
beta-tocotrienol, 286 mg/kg y-tocotrienol, and 69 mg/kg 5-tocotrienol for
a total of 1,172 mg/ kg.
... Palm oil is a source of
beta-carotene and antioxidants in its unprocessed state; how much of
these antioxidants are still retained depends on the degree of processing.
It is a stable fat that has 50 percent saturated, 40 percent
monounsaturated, and 10 percent polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Palm Kernel Oil
Palm kernel oil is obtained from the nuts of the palm fruit (Elaeis
guineensis). As such, palm kernel oil is a by-product of palm oil
production. It is usually recovered by expeller and solvent extractions.
Like coconut oil, palm kernel oil is a lauric oil and has physical and chemical
properties that superficially resemble coconut oil. In the U.S. and
Europe, palm kernel oil is used extensively as a confectionery fat, either
as a cocoa butter extender or a cocoa butter substitute.
The usual fatty acid composition of palm kernel oil is 4 percent
caprylic acid, 4 percent capric acid, 50 percent lauric acid, 16 percent
myristic acid, 8 percent palmitic acid, 2 percent stearic acid, 14 percent
oleic acid, and 2 percent linoleic acid. Typical tocopherol and tocotrienol
values are 13 mg/kg a-tocopherol and 21 mg/kg a-tocotrienol for a total
of 34 mg/kg.