Recovered oil from palm-pressed fiber: A good source of natural carotenoids, vitamin E, and sterols

Recovered fiber from pressed palm fruits, which is normally burned as fuel to provide energy for the palm oil mills, has now been found to be a rich source of carotenoids, vitamin E (tocopherol and tocotrienols), and sterols. Residual oil (5-6% on dry basis) extracted from palm press fibers contains a significant quantity of carotenoids (4000-6000 ppm), vitamin E (2400-3500 ppm), and sterols (4500-8500 ppm). The major identified carotenoids are alpha-carotene (19.5%), beta-carotene (31.0%), lycopene (14.1%), and phytoene (11.9%). In terms of vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol constitutes about 61% of the total vitamin E present, the rest being tocotrienols (alpha-, gamma-, and delta-). The major sterols present are beta-sitosterol (47%), campesterol (24%), and stigmasterol (15%). The oil extracted from palm-pressed fiber is contaminated with about 30% of palm kernel oil. The quality of this fiber oil is slightly lower than that of crude palm oil in terms of the content of free fatty acids, peroxide value, and anisidine value.