Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil high in saturated fats and free from transient fat. The oil palm tree is native to West Africa and was imported into South East Asia in the mid 19th Century. Oil palm flourishes in the tropics and produces high yield when grown 10 degree north and south of the equator.
Palm fruit develops in dense bunches weighing 10 kilogram or more and containing more than a thousand individual fruits similar in size to a small plum. Accordingly, palm oil tree produces two types of oil: palm oil and palm kernel oil. Palm oil is obtained from the flesh of the fruit and palm kernel is produced by extracting the oil from the internal seed. Palm oil is used to manufacture various products in industries around the world. It is a raw material for production of bio-fuel useful for automobile, aircraft, ships and other industrial mechanical engines.