Healthy Minor Constituents From Palm Oil
Vitamin E
- Palm oil is a rich source of vitamin E
- Crude palm oil contains 600-1000 mg/kg vitamin E, present as tocopherols (30%) & tocotrienols(70%)
- Palm oil tocotrienolsare powerful antioxidants
- Tocotrienolsare 40-60 times more potent antioxidant than α-tocopherol
Carotenoids
- Carotenoids are the precursors for vitamin A
- β-carotene has the highest provitamin A activity
- Red Palm Oil contains 500-700 mg/kg carotenoids
- α-and β-carotene are the major carotenoids in Red Palm Oil (90% of total carotenoids)
- Red Palm Oil recommended to combat vitamin A deficiency
- Carotene from palm oil is used as natural food colourant which enhances food presentation & adds nutritional value to the products
Phenolics
- Like all fruits, the oil palm fruit is a rich source of water-soluble phenolic compounds
- Phenolics are recovered from the water discharged from the palm oil milling process
- The recovered product (Oil Palm Phenolics) contains phenolic compounds including caffeoylshikimicacid (CFA), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA), protocatechuic acid (PCA) and hydroxytyrosol
Health benefits
- Tocotrienols: Antioxidant, neuroprotective, cardioprotective& potential anti-inflammation&anti-cancer properties
- Carotenoids: Antioxidant, anti-inflammation & support vision health
- Oil Palm Phenolics: Neuroprotective, anti-inflammation& cardioprotective
