Factor Influence Degradation of Cell Wall to Enhance Palm Oil Extraction-A Preliminary Results

Abstract

The cell walls of palm mesocarp can be degraded by heating oil palm fruits or by the application of enzymes to increase the release of oil from the oil globules thus higher oil yield can be obtained. In this study, the effect of dry heating and the application of enzyme as a medium to degrade the cell wall of palm fruits were studied. The cell wall degradation by dry heating was found to be slightly different from wet heating treatment of oil palm fruits when observed using transmission electron microscope (TEM). It was found that the cell wall by dry heating had not fully decomposed as compared to wet heating. However, the combination of dry heating followed by application of enzyme achieved a maximum oil yield with 6% enzyme Celluclast 1.5L concentration, 200 rpm speed and 4 hours extraction time at 50˚C. Moreover, pineapple juice at the corresponding condition was also studied in an attempt to replace the commercial enzyme to extract the oil from palm mesocarp.