Quality of planting materials determines future successes of plantations and subsequent endeavours in the life cycle. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) breeding triggered an industry in Malaysia through “Plant Introduction” with the establishment of the first oil palm plantation. At the wake of the oil palm industry, plantations utilised the dura planting material. The hallmark discovery of the single gene inheritance for shell thickness led to the prolific dura x pisifera (DxP) derived tenera planting material. Subsequent parental inbred lines developed in recurrent selections, crossed and progeny tested exploiting heterosis had boosted yields. Further improvements were foresighted and executed in the widening of the genetic pool and collections of germplasm in centres of origin/diversity in Africa and Latin America. Field Genebank of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) forms the world’s largest ex situ oil palm conservation programme. This programme enabled the developments of elite breeding populations harbouring specialty oils and products. Meanwhile, opening of large oil palm areas by the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) set the momentum in rapid expansion of the industry. Felda is an exemplary in wealth creation and quality of life (QOL). Resettlements of landless farmers into Felda schemes, employing modern farming, mainly in oil palm has helped eradicate poverty and uplifting QOL among settlers, employees and their families. Impacts of the success in wealth creation and its distribution leading to better QOL, rooted from breeding through the supply of quality planting materials. Phenotypic expressions of the planting materials were realised through genotypic and environment interactions; the former through breeding, the latter through agronomic practices. Efforts in oil palm breeding helped paved the way to a mammoth industry, contributing to the nation economic growths, impacting livelihood of the people. Further progress in yield is expected from clones, where breeding has a role in the supply of quality ortets. Genetic potential of planting materials can be further exploited through interdisciplinary approach in breeding, biotechnology and genomics. With continuing wealth creation, the oil palm saga continues. Once wealth is created, QOL will follow.
Tocochromanols consisting of tocopherols and tocotrienols, is collectively known as vitamin E. Similarity in their structures, physical and chemical properties rendered the tocochromanols to be subject of chromatography interest. Supercritical fluid chromatography is a highly efficient tool for the separation and analysis of tocochromanols. Separation and analysis of tocochromanols using supercritical fluid chromatography had been carried out in the past using capillary or packed columns. Each of these techniques offer their own advantages and drawbacks. Besides being used for analysis, packed column supercritical fluid chromatography found applications as a purification and content enrichment tool. Emergence of new equipment and stationary phase technologies in recent years also helped in making supercritical fluid chromatography a highly efficient tool for the separation and analysis of tocochromanols. This paper gives an insight into the use of capillary and packed columns in supercritical fluid chromatography for the separation and/or analysis of tocochromanols. The types of stationary phase used, as well as chromatographic conditions are also discussed.
Elaeis oleifera serves as a source of genetic foundation in oil palm improvement programme, as it possess several interesting agronomic traits such as slow growth, higher oil unsaturation and disease resistance. Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has developed a collection of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) from Elaeis oleifera genome (E. oleifera-gSSRs). A total of 21 polymoprhic SSR markers were evaluated in the attempt to assess the population structure of E. oleifera populations. The appropriate common ancestry (K) value was determined to be seven from the likelihood scores. The profile from STRUCTURE analysis indicates considerable sharing of genetic components among E. oleifera population with an exception for Population 01 from Columbia and Population 02 from Costa Rica. The present study provides information on population structure of MPOB E. oleifera collection via model-based method for germplasm conservation and utilisation in breeding programmes.
Transesterification of palm olein with glycerol can increase the functionality by introducing additional hydroxyl groups to the triglyceride structure, an advantage compared to using palm olein directly as feedstock for producing palm-based polyol. The objective of this study was to synthesize transesterified palm olein-based polyol via a three-step reaction: (1) transesterification of palm olein, (2) epoxidation and (3) epoxide ring opening. Transesterification of palm olein yielded approximately 78 % monoglyceride and has an hydroxyl value of approximately 164 mg KOH g(-1). The effect of formic acid and hydrogen peroxide concentrations on the epoxidation reaction was studied. The relationships between epoxide ring-opening reaction time and residual oxirane oxygen content and hydroxyl value were monitored. The synthesized transesterified palm olein-based polyol has hydroxyl value between 300 and 330 mg KOH g(-1) and average molecular weight between 1,000 and 1,100 Da. On the basis of the hydroxyl value and average molecular weight of the polyol, the transesterified palm olein-based polyol is suitable for producing rigid polyurethane foam, which can be designed to exhibit desirable properties. Rigid polyurethane foams were synthesized by substituting a portion of petroleum-based polyol with the transesterified palm olein-based polyol. It was observed that by increasing the amount of transesterified palm olein-based polyol, the core density and compressive strength were reduced but at the same time the insulation properties of the rigid polyurethane foam were improved.