Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), African tree in the palm family (Arecaceae), cultivated as a source of oil. The oil palm is grown extensively in its native West and Central Africa, as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil, obtained from the fruits, is used in making soaps, cosmetics, candles, biofuels, and lubricating greases and in processing tinplate and coating iron plates. Palm kernel oil, from the seeds, is used in manufacturing such edible products as margarine, ice cream, chocolate confections, cookies, and bread, as well as many pharmaceuticals. The cake residue after kernel oil is extracted is a cattle feed. The plant is also grown as an ornamental in many subtropical areas.
The oil palm bears a single stem and reaches about 20 metres (66 feet) in height. It has many tiny flowers crowded on short branches that develop into a large cluster of oval fruits some 4 cm (1.6 inches) long. When ripe, the fruits are black with a red base and feature a single oily seed known as the kernel. For commercial oil production, the outer fleshy portion of the fruit is steamed to destroy the lipolytic enzymes and then pressed; the resulting palm oil is highly coloured because of the presence of carotenes. The kernels of the fruit are also pressed in mechanical screw presses to recover palm kernel oil, which is chemically quite different from the oil from the flesh of the fruit.
The commercial palm oil industry rapidly expanded in the late 20th century and has led to the deforestation of significant swaths of Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as large areas in Africa. New plantations are often formed using slash-and-burn agricultural methods, and the resulting fragmentation of natural forests and loss of habitat threatens native plants and animals. Although attempts have been made to certify sustainably grown palm oil, corporate buyers have been slow to support those endeavours; some environmental groups have urged individuals to avoid products with palm oil altogether.
The American oil palm (Elaeis oleifera) is native to Central and South America and is sometimes cultivated under the erroneous name Elaeis melanococca. Unlike the African oil palm, the trunk of the American oil palm creeps along the ground and bears flat leaves. Both the American oil palm and the maripa palm (Attalea maripa) are used to obtain palm oil in some areas. The oil of the American oil palm was probably used for making candles by the early American colonizers.