Elaeis guineensis

African oil palm

Useful reference: 101

A palm tree 20-25 m high native to west tropical Africa. The fruit grows in bunches and consists essentially of a soft outer skin, which is reddish orange when ripe, and a fibrous layer covering the nut, composed of a shell and a kernel containing the palm oil.

The fruit yields two kinds of oil: palm oil from the fleshy covering and palm kernel oil from the nut. During the processing of palm fruits the first residue of empty bunches - 50% of the fresh fruit bunches - is used as fuel in the oil-extraction plant. Then anther 20% of the fresh fruit bunches are processed in a mechanical press to obtain viscous crude oil. The nuts from 15% of the fresh fruit bunches are separated from the solid residue, or palm fibre, and sent to plants specializing in the extraction of palm kernel oil. Purification of the oil produces large amounts of sludge.

PALM OIL. The oil from the fleshy outer skin of the fruit is customarily included (at about a 5% level) in pig and poultry rations as a source of vitamins A and D and to reduce dustiness in the feed.

PALM PRESS FIBRE. This by-product is acceptable to ruminants at a low level of inclusion in the diet. Crude protein and crude fibre digestibility decreases when the level of inclusion exceeds 25-30%. The fibre can be dried and pelleted to overcome the problems of poor keeping quality and bulkiness.

PALM OIL SLUDGE. The waste from palm oil purification has been used to feed cattle and pigs on estates where it is produced. Cattle seem to accept up to 40% palm oil sludge in their rations without adverse effects. Palm oil sludge and press fibre combined in equal proportions can constitute up to 50% of the ruminant ration; however, this blend can be stored for no more than a day and a half before it becomes unpalatable. Raw or concentrated palm oil sludge can be absorbed on cassava meal or palm kernel cake and dried into feed cakes.

PALM KERNEL CAKE. Despite a comparatively high oil content, palm kernel cake is dry and gritty and is not readily accepted by all types of stock. As an ingredient in mixed feeds, its unpalatability is of less importance.

Solvent-extracted meal is particularly unpalatable and must therefore be mixed with well-liked feeds, such as molasses, and fed in gradually increasing proportions. It is, however, a safe and wholesome material, and if reasonable care is taken in the arrangement of the feeding, it is readily eaten.

Palm kernel cake is largely used for feeding cattle. It tends to produce a firm butter when fed to dairy cattle. A ration or 2-5 kg per day has been found satisfactory for adult cattle.

Good results have been obtained from pig rations consisting of 20-30% palm kernel meal. Higher proportions usually cause scouring. It has been claimed, however, that a final pig fattening ration of 62.4% palm kernel meal, 35.1% maize and 2.5% blood meal gives average weekly increases of 4.5 kg per hog. Young pigs do not always like it, and in pig feeding it must always be introduced very gradually. Palm kernel cake or meal tends to produce firm pork of good quality.

Palm kernel cake, though seldom used in poultry rations, seems to be palatable to poultry and can replace wheat middlings in the poultry diet. Up to 20% has been included in the diet with good results.

					As % of dry matter
				DM	CP	CF	Ash	EE	NFE	Ca	P	Ref
Kernels, Malaysia				92.0	7.9	3.9	1.7	54.0	32.5	0.09	0.31	292
Pericarp, Malaysia				66.6	7.4	19.0	8.1	12.0	53.5	0.13	0.12	"
Kernel oilcake, hyd-
raulically pressed,
Ghana				88.2	15.8	29.7	3.7	23.0	27.8	0.21	0.47	372
Kernel oilcake,
expeller, Nigeria				91.6	20.4	9.0	5.7	8.3	56.6			374
Kernel oil meal,
solvent extracted,
Ghana				90.8	18.6	37.0	4.5	1.7	38.2	0.31	0.85	372
Palm press fibre,
Malaysia				86.2	4.0	36.4	9.0	21.0	29.6	0.31	0.13	516
Palm oil sludge,
Malaysia					9.6	11.5	11.1	21.3	46.5	0.28	0.26	"
							Digestibility (%)
					Animal		CP	CF	EE	NFE	ME	Ref
Kernels					Sheep		95.2	60.3	95.3	84.0	5.38	512
Oilcake, expeller					Sheep		84.9	60.0	96.1	85.3	3.31	"
Oilcake, expeller					Pigs		60.0	36.3	25.0	76.7	2.25	"
					Nylon bag degradability
						a	b	c		12hr	48hr	Ref
						(%)	(%)	(/hour)		(%)	(%)
Palm kernel cake, Ghana					DM	48.4	15.9	0.0415			59.9	627
Oil palm fruit bracts,
Ghana					DM	11.7	20.3	0.0292			25.6	"
	[P (rumen degradability at time t) = a+b*(1-exp(-c*t))]
		Amino acid composition as % of crude protein
Kernel oilcake											Ref	119
Arg	Cys	Gly	His	Ils	Leu	Lys	Met	Phe	Thr	Try	Tyr	Val
13.9	1.9	4.8	2.5	3.8	6.4	3.7	2.7	3.6	3.5	2.8	2.7	5.7