3rd stop: OIL PALM PLANTATION

REFLECTION:

I have learnt that the oil palm has bright male and female flowers. Before taking on a bright reddish orange color from the tropical sun when they mature, the fruit is dark purple, almost black. Inside, they have one single seed and the kernel is protected by the stone, a surrounded by a fleshy pulp. Both the kernel and the pulp provide abundant oil. Palm oil and palm kernel oil are used to manufacture products for making soaps, detergents, lubricants for paint, varnishes, gums and ink.

It also can be used as biofuel. Biodiesel is now a new alternative for the use of palm oil as a raw material for other products.

RESEARCH:

OIL PALM originatd from Africa and was introduced by William Sime and Henry Dardy in 1910

Four stages of processing can be distinguished ;

sterilization, bunch stripping, oil extraction and oil clarification and purification.

streilization: by steaming

bunch stripping: separate fruits from the bunch

oil extraction: placed under pressure

oil clarification: purified

The empty fruit bunch can be reused for power, fertilizers can be used for two distinctive oil:

>oiein

>stearin

90% of cooking oil come from the palm.

How to know if it is ripe?

When ripe 5 seeds will drop when the leaf iscut,every tree can be harvested thrice monthly

6 month after pollination, the tree would be able tobear fruits

fruit:

pulp: the yellow part of the seed a common cooking ingredient

kernel: the white area, make into cosmetics

In general, 20% of the fruit is oil.

the fruit!

the plantation

oil palm all laid out

By: Louis (7), Min Hwee (3)