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Introduction
Oil palm (
&MBFJTǰ HVJOFFOTJT
Jacq.) is the highest yielding edible oil crop in the world and is
cultivated in 42 countries on 11 million ha worldwide [1]. Oil palm and its fractions are used in the
manufacturing of cooking oil, margarines, spreads, ice creams and dairy products [2]. Palm oil contains
palmitic, monosaturated oleic, polyunsaturated linoleic and stearic acids [2-4] and also minor constituents
with nutritional and beneficial health properties, including tocopherols, tocotrienols, carotenoids,
phytosteropls, phenolic compounds and other phytonutrients [5, 6]. Palm oil possesses 1% minor
components which amongst them are carotenoids, vitamin E (tocopherols and tocotrienols) and sterols.
The orange colour of palm oil is due to the presence of these carotenes. Its concentration normally ranges
between 400 and 3,500 ppm and it contains about 15 times more retinol equivalents (vitamin A) than
carrots and 300 times more than tomatoes [7, 8]. In addition, palm oil contains very little amount of
phytosterols (300-620 ppm), Squalene (250-540 ppm), phospholipids (20-100 ppm), co-enzyme Q10 (20-80
ppm) and polyphenolics (40-70 ppm).
Intense development of the oil palm industry in Thailand contributes to the country’s economic
growth mainly through the trading of crude palm oil and its products. However, there is an abundance of
illegal entry of palm from Malaysia and Indonesia which make palm price in Thailand volatile. In addition,
the other problem in the palm oil industry is habitat degradation. Once the oil palms have begun to
produce, the fruit must be harvested at the right moment. Palm fruit becomes too ripe suddenly after
harvest, many clusters will drop and the quality of the fruit will be less good. Therefore, the study of the
alternative utilization of oil palm fruit is the interested issue. To our knowledge, there have been no
reports documenting the chemical composition, phenolic acids, flavonoids, fatty acid and lipase profile of
the palm fruit. Thus we decided to determine the chemical composition, bioactive compounds and
antioxidant activity of oil palm fruit cultivated in southern Thailand. This study aimed to promote oil palm,
increase oil palm price and prevent excess supply problem.
Materials and methods
Plant collection
Oil palm fruit (
& ǰ HVJOFFOTJT
) were collected from the Faculty of Science, Thaksin University
(Thailand) and used as the sample for this study. Oil fruit were picked randomly from different parts of
bunches. Fruits of uniform size (15.29±3.0 g) and with no visible defects were collected and left for 0-240 h
after harvesting under room temperature. Afterward, the samples were separated under specific time,
washed thoroughly under running tap water, cut into smaller pieces and blended under suitable solvent.
Solvent extraction
