Oil palm

Oil palm
Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis )
Systematics
Family : Palm family (Arecaceae) Subfamily : Arecoideae Tribe : Cocoseae Sub tribus : Elaeidinae Genre : Oil palms ( Elaeis ) Type : Oil palm
Scientific name
Elaeis guineensis
Jacq.

The oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis ) is one of the most economically important palm species . Originally native to Africa , it is now also cultivated in tropical America and especially in Southeast Asia . The palm tree, which is up to 30 meters high, produces fruit bunches with a weight of up to 50 kilograms. The palm bears 3,000 to 6,000 fruits.

The fruits perish quickly and must therefore be processed immediately after harvest. The fruit clusters are treated with steam to destroy a fat-splitting enzyme . Then the fruits are squeezed and the stone kernels are separated. The hard shell is cracked and the seeds are dried. The orange-colored pulp, due to its high carotene content, provides the palm oil , the seeds the palm kernel oil .

features

The oil palm is a single-sexed ( monoecious ) palm. The number of chromosomes is 2n = 32.

Young oil palm

root

The primary roots brush horizontally in the soil at a depth of 20 to 60 cm. A small part penetrates to a depth of several meters. Some of the first-order lateral roots grow negatively gravitropically upwards and form a then horizontal, strongly branched root system directly below the soil surface. The highest root density is reached at a distance of two to three meters from the trunk. The nutrient uptake occurs mainly from the unwooded third-order lateral roots, which are around one centimeter long and 0.5 mm thick.

On adult palms there are often aerial roots that can cover the trunk up to a meter in height.

tribe

The trunk develops when the palm is 3 to 4 years old and is 25 to 75 cm in diameter. The annual increase in height is between 20 and 60 cm. From around the age of 15, the leaf stumps begin to fall off the palm. Only then does the actual trunk become visible. From a stem height of 20 to 30 m, signs of age appear, fruit production declines, the leaves become smaller. The palm then dies suddenly. It can reach an age of 200 years.

Oil palm plantation in Malaysia

leaves

The first seven leaves of the young plant are lanceolate. The next few leaves are split at the tip of the blade, the next more and more pinnate. The number of leaflets per leaf increases up to the age of 12 or 15 years. Under constant growth conditions, the next leaf is longer and has more, wider and longer leaflets. From the appearance of the leaf system on the vegetation cone to the formation of the leaf, it takes around 2 to 2.5 years in fully grown palms. Under favorable conditions, a palm tree produces 25 to 35 leaves per year, in dry periods only around 20.

The leaves can be up to 7.5 m long. They stay on the palm for about two years before they die. They break off and the leaf base remains on the trunk. Dust, plant remains and seeds collect in their armpits, so that a number of epiphytes settle here.

Inflorescence and flowers

The inflorescence consists of an approximately 5 to 10 cm thick inflorescence axis, on which there are about 200 spiral side axes, the ears . An inflorescence has either male or female flowers only. Mixed inflorescences can also be found in young palms.

In female inflorescences, the ears are in the axils of thorny bracts . The long thorn is retained even on the ripe fruit cluster. Male ears are longer than female ears, but their bracts do not have thorns. A single ear bears 700 to 2000 flowers, an inflorescence consists of 150,000 to 200,000 flowers. The female flowers have three compartments ovary with one ovule .

An inflorescence plant forms in each axilla of a leaf. In adult palms, the inflorescence takes about two years to develop. Until two weeks before the anthesis it is covered by two bracts.

Pollination is carried out by weevils , especially those of the genus Elaeidobius .

Fruits and seeds

Fruits of the oil palm, Bolivia

The fruits are ripe about 5.5 to 9 months after pollination. A month before ripening, oil droplets and carotenes are formed in the pulp . The initially hard fruits become soft. The oil content is highest when the first fruits separate from the fruit cluster. This is also the harvest time.

The drupes are 3 to 6 cm long and 2 to 4 cm wide. They weigh around 20 g. The exocarp , the outer shell, is thin. The pulp ( mesocarp ) is fibrous and consists of 45 to 50% oil. Due to the carotenes, the pulp is yellow to reddish. Inside the stone shell ( endocarp ) is the mostly single seed , which contains 48 to 52% oil.

The oil palms are very variable in terms of shape, color, number and size of the fruits as well as the number and size of the fruit heads. African dura palm trees provide an average of around 18 kg of fruit, East Asian deli palm trees around 25 kg. One fruit cluster contains 800 to 4000 fruits.

Seedling plant

The seedling stage lasts about two months. First, the radicle and the cotyledon appear through one of the three germ holes in the shell. The end of the seedling stage is set with the formation of the sixth leaf. Until then, the plant lives practically only on the nutrients in the endosperm.

The radicle (radicula) becomes up to 20 cm long. A wreath of thin adventitious roots forms at their attachment point. The first leaf that is not pinnate appears around a month after germination. When the first primary root is formed, the radicle dies.

Diseases and Herbivores

In culture, important pests on seedlings are grubs and termites. Leaf diseases are important in growing beds and seed beds, especially the leaf spot pathogen Leptosphaeria elaeidis ( anamorphic Pestalotiopsis palmarum ). It causes yellow-brown to gray leaf spots, the tissue dries out and the leaves die. There are three major anthracnose pathogens that cause different symptoms: Botrydiploida palmarum initially causes small spots on the tips or edges of young leaves, which later become larger and dark brown. A type of Melancomium leads to lighter spots with a pale yellow border that dry quickly. Glomerella cingulata leads to elongated dark spots between the leaf veins .

In production facilities, root and stem rot caused by a number of soil-dwelling fungi are important. The mycelium of Armillaria -Pilzes, the world's common cause of a root-derived white rot is intended to lead to death of the infected trees not only in mango, but also in oil palm plantations in many cases. Africa is also the tracheomycosis caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. elaeidis and f. sp. redolens , virulent.

In South and Central America, the nematode Rhadiphanelenchus cocophilus causes wilt, fruit shedding and the death of young palm trees. The nematodes enter the plants via the palm weevil Rhynchophorus palmarum . The disease known in Latin America as Marchitez or Sudden Wilt is caused by the flagellate Phytomonas staheli ( Trypanosomatida ). The cause of the Cadang-Cadang disease originating in the Philippines , which in addition to millions of coconut palms also fell victim to many oil palms, is the viroid coconut cadang cadang viroid (CCCV).

Among the insects, besides rhinoceros beetles of the genus Oryctes and the palm borer Phynchophorus , a myriad of leaf-eating caterpillars are of particular importance, especially from the families Limacodidae , Psychidae and Nymphalidae .

history

The oil palm is originally native to the rainforests of West Africa and was used there as a crop. The Portuguese navigator Gil Eanes first reported about oil palms in Europe in 1443 .

The oil palm was scientifically described and illustrated by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in 1763 . The oil palm probably came to South America via slave transports. The oil palm first came to Asia as an ornamental plant in botanical gardens at the beginning of the 19th century: in 1848 two palms each came from the botanical garden of Amsterdam and from Réunion to Bogor (Indonesia). From here specimens got to Singapore and from these two places later to Deli on Sumatra. After industrial processing of the oil was possible, large plantations were established from around 1900: in West Africa from 1908, in Indonesia from 1911 and in Malaysia from 1919.

Fruits of the oil palm on a market in Burkina Faso

Systematics

The first description under the name Elaeis guineensis by the Austrian botanist Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin was published in 1763. From 1910 to 1914, Odoardo Beccari and Auguste Jean Baptiste Chevalier described many varieties, all of which are now regarded as synonyms for the type itself.

The oil palms are divided into several types according to the properties of the fruit. According to the color of the exocarp one differentiates:

• nigrescens is common. The parts of the unripe fruits exposed to sunlight are colored purple to black by anthocyanins , the shaded parts are ivory. Ripe fruits are further divided:
  • rubro-nigrescens : the fruit is deep red-orange. the upper part of the fruit is brown. The pulp is orange to red, the oil reddish.
  • rutilo-nigrescens : the exocarp is pale orange, the upper part of the fruit is black.
• virescens is not very common. The unripe fruits are green, the ripe reddish-orange, the tip is green. They have little to no anthocyanin.
• albescens is very rare. The fruits are ivory or pale yellow. When ripe the tip is blackish or green. The pulp does not contain carotene.

According to the thickness of the endocarp, three types are distinguished:

• Dura with an endocarp 2 to 8 mm thick, the pulp occupies 35 to 55%.
• Tenerife with a 0.5 to 3 mm thick endocarp, the pulp occupies 60 to 95%.
• Pisifera without endocarp, the pulp occupies almost 100%.

The main types for cultivation are Dura nigrescens and Tenerife nigrescens . The deli palms, which are widely grown in East Asia, also belong to the dura type.

Economical meaning

Oil palm fruit

Oil palm fruit

According to the food and agriculture organization FAO, around 272 million t of oil palm fruits were harvested worldwide in 2018 .

The following table gives an overview of the ten largest producers of oil palm fruits worldwide, who produced 94% of the harvest.

Biggest Producers (2018)

rank	country	Quantity (in t )
1	Indonesia	115.267.491
2	Malaysia	98,419,400
3	Thailand	15,400,000
4th	Nigeria	7,850,000
5	Colombia	5,878,504
6th	Ecuador	2,785,756
7th	Cameroon	2,641,118
8th	Ghana	2,604,387
9	Papua New Guinea	2,496,325
10	Honduras	2,493,910
	world	272.055.131

Palm oil

Palm oil; the reddish color is recognizable.

The following table gives an overview of the ten largest producers of palm oil worldwide, who produced a total of 96.2% of the harvest.

Largest palm oil producers (2018)

rank	country	Quantity (in t )
1	Indonesia	40,567,230
2	Malaysia	19,516,100
3	Thailand	2,776,800
4th	Colombia	1,630,000
5	Nigeria	1,050,000
6th	Guatemala	875,000
7th	Honduras	650,000
8th	Papua New Guinea	630,000
9	Ecuador	560,000
10	Brazil	450,000
	world	71.453.193

use

→ Main article : Palm oil

The world production of palm oil has more than quadrupled since 1995 due to the increasing industrial use in the food industry as well as in the technical industry and bioenergy. Malaysia and Indonesia together dominate the world market. In 2018 Indonesia alone produced 40.6 million tons and Malaysia 19.5 million tons, the total production was 71 million tons. So Indonesia has a world market share of 57% and Malaysia one of 27%, the following production countries in the list come from 3.9% (Thailand) to 0.8% (Brazil). Global production of 57.3 million tons was registered for the 2014 financial year, making palm oil the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world, ahead of soybean oil (45.7 million tons).

According to the latest available data from the FAO in 2009, around a third of palm oil production worldwide is used for food, around two thirds for industrial purposes (cleaning agents, cosmetics, candles, biodiesel).

Use as food

Palm oil and palm kernel oil are used to a large extent in the field of nutrition. Due to its excellent heat and oxidation stability, palm oil is mainly used in Asia and Africa as an edible fat for cooking, frying and deep-frying. It is also used internationally for the production of baked goods, margarine and confectionery. Palm kernel oil is also used to a large extent in the manufacture of margarine, which gives it a butter-like taste. In addition, due to its melting properties, it is used for cocoa glazes, ice confectionery , cream coatings and fast-melting chocolate fillings, toffees and caramel. Through various changes, palm kernel oil can also be converted into high-quality special fats for the confectionery industry.

Industrial use

Palm oil tanks at a bio power plant are filled.

Palm kernel oil is combined with coconut oil due to its specific properties to form lauric oils and is used for a wide range of applications in oleochemistry . Like palm oil, these oils are used to extract lauric acid and are used as a base for various surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate and sorbitan monolaureate . Other products based on palm and palm kernel oil are used in various products in the cosmetics and cleaning industries.

A comparatively small part of the palm oil is used for the production of biofuels , especially biodiesel and the processed NEXBtL , a hydrogenated vegetable oil from the Finnish company Neste Oil, and as fuel in combined heat and power plants .

Sustainability and environmental problems

Ecological and human rights problems

Irreversible habitat destruction through oil palm planting on Borneo

The creation of new oil palm plantations and the plantation economy have come under international criticism, both from environmental protection organizations and politically. Former arable land is rarely converted into oil palm plantations; mostly large areas of rainforest are cut down with the main aim of creating oil palm plantations there. Oil palms grow particularly well in tropical areas, i.e. where there are also rainforests. It is also criticized that the oil palm plantations are currently operated in an ecologically unsustainable manner. The production of palm oil is associated with the destruction of the rainforest, displacement of the population and the end of Asia 's great apes , the orangutans .

Numerous environmental protection organizations, in Germany in particular Greenpeace , Robin Wood and Rettet den Regenwald , point out that rainforests are being destroyed on a large scale for the establishment of new oil palm plantations . These statements have been corroborated by research based on FAO data that between 1990 and 2005 1.87 million hectares of oil palm plantations were created in Malaysia and more than 3 million hectares in Indonesia, more than half of which was due to deforestation originated.

Pesticide use on a palm oil plantation

In Indonesia and Malaysia, the expansion of palm oil cultivation is now the main cause of deforestation , and huge amounts of CO _{2 are being} released through the slash and burn, especially of peat forests . A study published in 2006 by the non-profit organization Wetlands International came to the conclusion that every tonne of palm oil produced on former peat forest areas is responsible for 10 to 30 tons of CO ₂ emissions . The ASEAN Meteorological Center believes that the El Niño climatic phenomenon will intensify due to the slash and burn, resulting in a longer dry season for the region until October. This, in turn, would encourage the spread of future forest fires. Clouds of smoke from slash and burn on Sumatra cloud the sky over Kuala Lumpur and Singapore , east of the island, every year . Announcements by ASEAN that it would pursue a zero tolerance line against slash and burn was made in 1997 and 1998, but had no consequences. Politically influential plantation owners and high palm oil prices as well as widespread corruption are likely to be partly responsible for this.

In other countries such as Colombia, Ecuador and Cameroon, oil palm plantations have also been created on rainforest areas, in recent years 60,000 hectares in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas alone . When creating oil palm plantations, the land rights of local smallholders and indigenous communities are often violated.

Orangutans are directly threatened by large-scale palm oil plantations and have become symbols of opponents of oil palm plantations

The massive use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers on the very nutrient-poor tropical soils and in the very rainy climate poison the groundwater, rivers and, indirectly, the local population. In addition, the drinking and industrial water resources of the local population are severely impaired by the enormous water consumption of the plantations. Palm oil plantations are (like other monocultures ) a problem for maintaining the biodiversity of the structurally rich rainforests. The extensive oil palm monocultures in Indonesia, for example, threaten the habitat of the orangutans or the deforestation in Papua New Guinea threaten the prince hawk ( Accipiter princeps ).

The orangutan is mainly used by Rainforest Rescue as a symbol for criticism of the palm oil policy.

Responses to international criticism

While a certification system for palm oil and other biogenic energy sources, which has been prescribed by law in the Biomass Power Sustainability Ordinance since 2007 , is intended to guarantee the ecological and social sustainability of cultivation in the future and thus prevent unwanted effects such as deforestation and human rights violations, the production of other palm oil products such as cosmetics and margarine will continue not be subject to any sustainability criteria.

The in 2003 on the initiative of WWF , founded Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil ( Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil , RSPO) tries for palm oil to promote and to limit the environmental damage sustainable farming practices as a central organization. The around 250 members of the roundtable include not only some environmental protection associations and other NGOs, but mainly companies and institutions from the palm oil value chain, including plantation operators, traders and industrial buyers of palm oil, but also investors and banks. In May 2008, the Association of the Oil Seed Processing Industry in Germany (OVID) announced that the certification of sustainably produced palm oil on the basis of the RSPO guidelines would be implemented in the same year. The association of the Indonesian palm oil producers Gapki ( Gabungan Pengusaha Kelapa Sawit Indonesia ) has now admitted failures and announced that in future it will be ensured that only fallow land is used for the new cultivation of oil palm plantations.

However, some of the environmental associations also describe the cultivation methods developed by the RSPO as environmentally destructive on the grounds that palm oil cultivation in large monocultures cannot be sustainable in principle and the RSPO only serves the industry for greenwashing . In October 2008 around 250 environmental and social groups, including 20 from German-speaking countries, adopted a corresponding declaration. In November 2008 Greenpeace called the RSPO “little more than greenwash”.

In August 2015, the Norwegian pension fund withdrew its investments from four Asian companies that clear rainforests for palm oil extraction.

According to critics, organic palm oil should not necessarily be more sustainable in cultivation and production, except for a small part that is grown in African cooperatives.

According to a study by the Bread for All Foundation , no other bank has contributed as much to the financing of the palm oil business as Credit Suisse . Mainly through the investment bank helping companies raise capital. With the support of Credit Suisse, for example, US $ 900 million flowed to the palm oil producers and processors examined, although the bank has committed itself to social and environmental considerations in sustainability standards.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The section characteristics is based on: Gunther Franke (Ed.): Nutzpflanze der Tropen und Subtropen. Volume 3: Special crop production . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1769-8 , pp. 221-227.
2. ↑ C. Booth, JS Robertson: Leptosphaeria elaeidis sp. nov. isolated from anthracnosed tissue of oil palm seedlings. In: Transactions of the British Mycological Society. Volume 44, No. 1, 1961, pp. 24-26.
3. ↑ K. Mani, RN Swamy: Induction of sporulation in Pestalotiopsis palmarum by sodium chloride. In: Transactions of the British Mycological Society. Volume 80, No. 1, 1983, pp. 151-156.
4. ↑ Gunther Franke (ed.): Useful plants of the tropics and subtropics. Volume 3: Special crop production . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1769-8 , pp. 233-236.
5. ↑ Gunther Franke (ed.): Useful plants of the tropics and subtropics. Volume 3: Special crop production . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1769-8 , pp. 219-221.
6. ↑ Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia: 280 (1763).
7. ↑ Species list of the genus Elaeis at Kew Checklists ( enter Elaeis in the search box); Retrieved March 29, 2008.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Gunther Franke (Ed.): Useful plants of the tropics and subtropics. Volume 3: Special crop production . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1769-8 , p. 222f.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Crops> Oil palm fruit. In: Official FAO production statistics for 2018. fao.org, accessed on March 9, 2020 . 
10. ^ Crops> Oil, palm. In: Official FAO production statistics for 2018. fao.org, accessed on March 9, 2020 . 
11. ↑ faostat.fao.org
12. ^ ^{A b c} Sabine Krist, Gerhard Buchbauer, Carina Klausberger: Lexicon of vegetable fats and oils. Springer Verlag, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-211-75606-5 , pp. 330–337.
13. ↑ Dirty Oil: The Palm Oil Research. ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. October 9, 2012. 
14. ^ Tropical forests axed in favor of palm oil. ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: NewScientist Environment. May 31, 2008.
15. ^ Bio-fuel less sustainable than realized. ( Memento from September 17th, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Press release from Wetland International. December 8, 2006, accessed January 4, 2011.
16. ↑ KP: Clouds of smoke in the sky over Southeast Asia. New attempt to combat slash and burn. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 191, August 20, 2009, p. 5.
17. ^ Report on land evictions in Colombia .
18. ↑ James Painter: Losing land to palm oil in Kalimantan. In: BBC News. August 3, 2007.
19. ↑ UNEP, UNESCO: The Last Stand of the Orangutan ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 18, 2014. 
20. ^ One in eight bird species threatened by climate change. ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. NewScientist Environment May 19, 2008.
21. ^ Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, website
22. ^ Players in the Palm Oil Supply Chain. ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the web archive archive.today ) on the pages of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
23. ↑ Oil mills are pioneers ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . (PDF; 117 kB). Press release of the Association of the Oil Seed Processing Industry in Germany (OVID).
24. ↑ Palm oil companies pledge improvement. Indonesian producers want to spare Naturland in the future. In: Holz-Zentralblatt. 20, May 16, 2008.
25. ↑ International Declaration Against the 'Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) .
26. ↑ Greenpeace challenges RSPO to stop greenwashing member companies. November 14, 2008.
27. ↑ Environmentally harmful palm oil: Norway withdraws funds from several Asian companies. August 18, 2015.
28. ↑ Is organic palm oil better? ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2nd September 2014. 
29. ↑ Churches are targeting Credit Suisse. In: Der Bund , March 7, 2017, accessed on June 26, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Oil palm  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• First Draft Of Oil Palm Genome Completed
• Elaeis guineensis . In: U. Brunken, M. Schmidt, S. Dressler, T. Janssen, A. Thiombiano, G. Zizka: West African plants - A Photo Guide. Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main 2008.
• Dirty Oil: The Palm Oil Research. October 9, 2012.
• Alternatives to unsustainable palm oil products at utopia.de