Global population growth requires an increase in the number of products. Vegetable oil is no exception. The world produces and consumes huge quantities of it. On the territory of Russia, the most common sunflower is one of the types vegetable oil. In addition to it, there are still several dozen varieties, all of them have a name according to the plant or fruit from which they are produced. The most popular include palm, soy, rapeseed, olive and sunflower. Moreover, they also differ in the level of global production and consumption, for example, palm oil takes the leading position, accounting for 36%, soybean oil is in second - 26%, rapeseed is in third - 15%, and sunflower oil is only in fourth, occupying 9 percent of the total. .
What is it made from?
Palm oil is extracted from the fruits of the oil palm, which is native to West Africa. Her Latin name– Elaeisguineensis – translated as “olive” (elaion) and “Guinea” (guineensis). The first mention of it is found in the records of traders traveling across the African continent, dating back to the 15th century. However, today the main suppliers of this natural product are Indonesia and Malaysia. It’s not difficult to guess why - thanks to the tenacity and hard work of these East Asian peoples, and of course the warm and humid climate. A third of the world's supplies are grown and produced in these regions. palm oil. In nature, palm trees can reach 30 meters, cultivated varieties - 15 meters. The tree begins to bear fruit at the age of 3-4 years. From one hectare of young palm trees you can collect up to 3 tons of fruits, from mature plants - up to 15 tons. Palm trees grown on plantations produce crops 2-4 times a year. The fruits of the oil palm, similar to plums, grow in whole fruit clusters - “heaps” of many thousands, weighing from 25 kilograms.
What are palm tree fruits?
Looks like oil palm fruit They look like a plum or a date, under the pericarp of which there is an oily pulp, followed by a nut shell with an inner kernel (palm kernel oil is also prepared from it).
What are the main types of oils made from oil palm fruits?
Palm oil color directly depends on the color of the fruit pulp. It can have a wide range of colors: from yellowish to dark red shades. Its scent is reminiscent of violets. After processing, including rectification (separation into components), bleaching and deodorization, it can be used for food. The refined product is mainly used during frying and as a salad dressing. It is also one of the components in the preparation of ice cream, chips, “quick” cereals, chocolate, various bakery and confectionery products, sausages, mayonnaise, etc.
Palm kernel oil extracted from kernels its characteristics are very similar to coconut, and is often used with/instead of it. The production and processing process of this type is more complex and expensive. It is produced in smaller quantities and is valued higher than usual. The scope of application of the palm kernel product is the production of high-quality expensive cosmetics and perfumes.
About beneficial and harmful properties
It's impossible not to say that there are types according to the degree of processing: raw, refined and technical.
The most expensive of them is the first - unprocessed. But it does not occur here. Crude palm oil contains a lot of vitamin E, provitamin A, and carotenoids. This positive side product properties.
Its harm lies in:
- high content of saturated fats,
- high melting point, or refractoriness,
- low levels of linoleic acid.
If such a degree of benefit/harm possesses something that has not undergone purification, then the refined product loses its benefits - that’s for sure, and the harmful characteristics increase.
Next view according to the degree of processing - technical. Most often, this type is used for the production of inexpensive cosmetics and technological lubricants. It's the cheapest. And therein lies the catch. Many food manufacturers, in order to save money, add a technical variety to their production process. There is no need to talk about its harmfulness. You just need to remember the unprocessed product and increase it elevenfold!
Whether or not to buy products that contain palm oil is up to everyone to decide for themselves.
How bananas grow
Bananas are native to the tropics South-East Asia. As a food, bananas are cultivated in the tropics. At temperatures below 16 C, growth slows down significantly, and at 10 C it stops altogether.
Contrary to popular belief, bananas do not grow on palm trees. The banana plant is a 5 meter tall herb similar to a palm tree. With a thick, up to 20 centimeters grassy trunk.
In Russia, bananas grow in the vicinity of Sochi, but the fruits do not ripen to the point of being suitable for food.
How olives grow
Olives are the fruits of a cultivated species of olive tree - Olive europaea. This is an evergreen subtropical tree 4-5 (10-12) meters high. (Photo by Francesco Quarto):
According to international terminology, there are black olives - ripe fruits of the olive tree and green olives - unripe fruits of the olive tree. In Russia, green fruits (unripe) are called olives; black olives are called olives (ripe). This division exists only in Russia.
How does avocado grow?
The English name for the avocado tree and its fruits is alligator pear. Avocado is a fast-growing tree, reaching a height of 18 meters. The trunk is usually straight and highly branched.
Avocado is an oval or spherical fruit, often similar to a pear, 5–20 cm long, weighing 0.05–1.8 kg.
Where does durian grow?
Durian is a tropical tree of the Malvaceae family, the fruit of which is a fruit famous for both its taste and smell. Durian is native to Southeast Asia.
Durian grows on tall trees up to 45 meters high.
These are big fruits. They weigh more than 5 kg and have a very hard shell covered with spines. To understand the scale of durian. (Photo Herald)
How do watermelons grow?
Watermelon is a plant of the pumpkin family. The homeland of watermelon is South Africa, where it still occurs in the wild. Watermelon was often placed in the tombs of pharaohs as a source of food in their afterlife. IN Western Europe Watermelons were introduced during the era of the Crusades.
Watermelons grow almost like cucumbers. The fields are called melon fields, in which long vines stretch along the ground. Watermelons are formed on them:
Interesting fact: The world record for the weight of watermelons is approximately 119 kilograms. (Photo by Kderty):
How mango grows
Mango is a genus of tropical plants and the name of a fruit with a sweet taste and fibrous structure. This plant is one of national symbols in India and Pakistan.
The evergreen mango tree has a height of 10-45 meters; the crown of the tree reaches a radius of 10 meters. Blooming mango tree:
Ripe fruits hang on long stems and weigh up to 2 kg.
Where do dates grow?
As you might guess, dates grow on the date palm. Since ancient times, dates have been used by humans as a highly valuable food product. They are usually sold as dried fruits.
The date palm was grown as early as the 4th century BC. in Mesopotamia, on the territory of which modern Iraq is located. The date palm produces high yields for 60-80 years.
How does papaya grow?
Papaya is native to southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America, but it is now grown in all tropical countries.
Papaya, or melon tree, is a low, slender tree with a thin, branchless trunk 5–10 meters high. The flowers develop in the axils of the leaves, turning into large fruits, 10–30 cm in diameter and 15–45 cm in length.
How does a plum grow?
In total, several hundred species of plum are known, distributed mainly in the northern temperate regions of the globe.
The plum tree usually grows up to 6 meters in height:
Blooming plum tree:
How does grapefruit grow?
Grapefruit is a subtropical evergreen tree of the citrus genus. The botanist-priest Griffiths Hughes was the first to tell the world about grapefruit in 1750. (Photo by CLHyke):
The name is derived from English. grape (grapes) and fruit (fruit), since grapefruit fruits are often collected in clusters, thereby resembling bunches of grapes.
evergreen tree Usually it is about 5-6 m in height, but there have been cases when the height of the tree reached 13-15 m. The fruits reach a diameter of 10-15 cm. The average time for the fruits to ripen is approximately 9-12 months. (Photo by Sarah Biggart):
Where does pomegranate grow?
Pomegranate is a genus of shrubs and small trees with thorny branches, reaching a height of 5-6 meters.
50-60 kg of fruits are usually collected from one tree. The tree lives for about 100 years.
Pomegranate comes from Persia, and its name translated from Latin means “grainy”, “faceted”. According to ancient legend, a pomegranate contains exactly the same number of seeds as there are days in a year. But in fact, a pomegranate can contain more than a thousand grains.
Where the coconut grows
The scientific name of the genus comes from the Portuguese word coco ("monkey") and is given because of the spots on the nut that make it look like a monkey's face. The origin of the coconut palm is unknown; it is believed to be native to Southeast Asia (Malaysia). It is now ubiquitous in the tropics of both hemispheres.
On a Venezuelan peach palm grow, of course not peaches. Its eighteen-meter trunk and even the leaves are covered with very sharp needle-like spines, protecting the ripening fruits from people and animals.
Peach palm (Latin, scientific name "Bactris gasipaes") is a tree-like plant of the Palm family of the genus Bactris. The genus "Bactris" is the largest genus 
palms in the New World - distributed from Mexico to South America. In every country where it grows, this palm tree has its own name. In Panama they call it "pixbae" (pronounced "piba").
The plant is native to the jungles of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Since ancient times, the palm tree has been cultivated and distributed by Indian tribes throughout the Amazon, gaining its greatest economic importance in Costa Rica. IN last decades The peach palm is grown in Central American countries (in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, in the very north of South America, as well as in the Antilles. In the Philippines, the first palm plantings appeared in 1924, and in India in the 1970s.
The peach palm produces edible fruits, as do some other species of Bactris. This straight, slender, thorny palm is twenty to thirty meters high and develops several thin stems. Its leaves are long, feathery, fan-shaped, two and a half to three and a half meters long. The peach palm tree is tall and slender, reaching a height of 20-30 meters. Its entire length or only its upper part is surrounded by rings of long (up to 12 centimeters) black needle-shaped spines. By the way, they make harvesting from trees very difficult. Needle-like spines are located in whorls.
The leaves of the plant are quite long (from 2.4 to 3.6 meters). They are pinnately complex in structure, have lanceolate, dark green leaves with spiny edges. The petioles are also dotted with spines. The flowers are yellowish-white, small. Male and female flowers are collected in mixed clusters and are located under the very crown of the palm tree. The length of the inflorescences reaches 30 centimeters.
The fruits are formed in clusters, up to 100 pieces each, which hang in huge clusters, similar to grapes. Their shape can be different: round, oval, conical, cupped. Fruit length - 6 - 8 cm. Bunch weight - 11 kg. Externally, the fruits are very similar to peaches, where does English come from (“peach palm” and Russian name this tree "Peach Palm" Its fruiting occurs in 3 - 4 years. Under favorable conditions, it blooms and bears fruit twice a year. The fruit harvest lasts throughout the fall. The richest harvest is harvested in October.
The skin of the fruit is thin, underneath it there is a sweet yellow-orange pulp that tastes sweet. There is one large seed inside the fruit. Beneath the thin skin of these fruits is sweet yellow-orange pulp with a long, conical seed. The fruit is considered so valuable: it can help a person stay active because it contains high level carbohydrates, but healthier than those found in potatoes, for example.
The fleshy outer part of the fruit tastes like a chestnut and if you boil it in salt water you will get... tasty dish, rich in vitamins. Sometimes these fruits are roasted and eaten with molasses or drizzled sugar syrup.
The cluster of ripe fruits is difficult to lift to a strong man, and each tree bears several such brushes. About twelve fruits are enough to completely satiate an adult.
Beneficial properties of peach palm fruits
The fruits contain a lot of vitamins A and C, starch and vegetable fats. The fruits are not eaten fresh. True connoisseurs of fresh fruits are various 
species of parrots whose numbers are declining as they are deforested tropical forests in the Amazon basin. For human consumption, they are boiled in salted water for 2-3 hours, usually with the addition of vegetable or butter. But first the peel of the fruit is cut. Eat boiled fruits while they are still hot. The fruits are usually eaten as a side dish fatty dishes or separately with some kind of gravy, since even the boiled pulp is a bit dry. Sometimes fruit pulp is added to bakery products, and also used to prepare a strong alcoholic drink, which is obtained by distilling the mash obtained from the fermentation of fruits.
Gourmets also eat the kernels, which taste somewhat like coconut.
Carefully collected fruits (without dents) can be stored at room conditions for a week.
The soft core from the upper part of the palm tree trunk (palmetto) is also used, which can be eaten raw or used for preservation and preparation of a wide variety of dishes. The taste of the fresh core is somewhat reminiscent of the taste of celery stalks.
Peach palm wood is an excellent building material. The leaves of local tribes are used to make roofs for huts. The leaves can also be used to prepare a decoction that Indians drink for stomach aches and headaches.
The peach palm is unknown in the wild, and its homeland continues to be a matter of speculation. However, scientists suggest that it was first found in the Amazon jungles of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. This palm tree has long been cultivated and spread by Indian tribes to neighboring areas. It is most important economically in Costa Rica. It is also cultivated in Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, northern South America and the Antilles. In 1924, the peach palm was introduced into cultivation in the Philippines, and in the seventies of the twentieth century - in India.
The peach palm is an important food plant in tropical America. It has been cultivated for centuries. Amazon Indian tribes use peach palm fruits in their religious rituals. Peach palm wood with flexible black fibers, strong and hard, polishes well. South American Indians use it to make hunting bows, arrows, darts, and ritual daggers. The thorns with which this extraordinary palm tree protects its fruits from animals are used by the Indians to apply tattoos with which they decorate their bodies. In the Amazon, the peach palm is called "peihuara", "pihiguao" - "Guilielma speciosa" or "Guilielma gasipaes", where it is one of the most important products in the Indian diet.
This is what Heinrich Walter Bätz, who traveled through the Amazon in the mid-nineteenth century, wrote about the peihuar: “The famous “peach palm”, pupunha ..... (“Guilielma speciosa”). I believe that the name is given by the similarity of color and not by the taste of the fruit, because it is dry and mealy, and the taste can be compared to chestnuts with cheese. ... This tree makes a wonderful decoration; it grows in clumps near houses covered with palm leaves; when fully developed, the pupunha reaches from fifty to sixty feet in height. A cluster of ripe fruits is difficult for a strong person to lift, and each tree bears several such clusters. Nowhere in the Amazon does pupunha grow wild. This is one of the few plant products (including three genera of mandi oca and American banana species) that the Indians have cultivated since time immemorial... And only more developed tribes were engaged in its cultivation... About twelve fruits are enough to completely satiate an adult.”
The fruits of the peach palm have a mealy pulp and resemble ripe peaches. They are tasty and nutritious, they contain a lot of starch, fats, vitamins A and C. Desserts, drinks and wine are prepared from the fruits of this variety and eaten fresh. They are even used to make flour and butter. The fruits are boiled in salted water, peeled and pitted and eaten with mayonnaise or cheese, or fried. Boiled peach palm fruits are sold as a snack on the streets of Costa Rica. The core of young palm shoots is also eaten by the inhabitants of Panama. It tastes similar to celery stalks. This part of the palm is eaten fresh or boiled, mixed with egg and used as a filling for casseroles. Also, when fermenting palm sap, they get alcoholic drink. Chicha beer is made by fermenting unsalted boiled puree of these fruits, sometimes mixed with plantain. The production of such a drink is prohibited in Costa Rica, with the exception of reservations where Indians live.
Peach palm leaves are used to feed pigs and chickens. Hollow palm trunks serve as gutters for water drainage, as pipes or flower planters. These fruits are used in folk medicine for headaches and stomach pains.
In Panama, the fruits of the peach palm provide food for many species of parrots, including those listed as endangered and endangered.
The fruits of this palm are harvested in Panama from September to December, with the tree producing the richest harvest in October and November. Up to thirteen clusters of such fruits can grow on one palm tree. The palm tree blooms twice a year. If the soil is moist enough, the peach palm in Panama can produce two harvests per year. Clusters of fruit become increasingly difficult to obtain as the palm grows in height, so when harvesting, Panamanians use special tools to pluck these clusters and make the fall of these delicate fruits to the ground as smooth as possible. In Costa Rica there are palm trees that are already fifty to a hundred years old. The ripe fruits of this tree are kept fresh for a very short time; they begin to become moldy three to five days after harvest. In stores, these fruits are usually sold already in canned form. Such canned products produced in the state of Panama are especially popular.
The fruits are boiled for 2-3 hours in salted water, often with the addition of oil, after cutting the peel, then eaten hot. They are usually eaten with some kind of gravy or as a side dish for fatty dishes, since the peach palm pulp is a bit dry. The pulp of the fruit is also added to bread products, and a strong alcoholic drink is prepared from it. The kernels of the kernels are edible and taste similar to coconut.
Soft core from the upper part of the trunk ( palmetto), like some other types of palm trees, are eaten raw or used in various dishes, canned.
Palm wood is used as a building material, and the leaves are used to make roofing for huts.
Did you know that date palms are divided into male and female? The male specimen has a different type of flowers, which makes it possible to distinguish it from the female “individual”. Since ancient times they knew that for a good harvest, male and female date palms are needed. For several dozen women's - one man's. One palm tree can produce a quarter ton of dates.
The palm tree is ideally suited for life in the desert: its trunk can protect not only from heat, but also from cold. Additional protection provide dead leaves. By the way, fresh palm leaves are very durable and residents of the corresponding latitudes make clothes from them. In this way, people are well protected from the scorching sun and dust. Very hot weather The palm grows only at night, resting during the day.
But how does a date palm in the desert survive without water? Fortunately, it does not grow without water. The reality is that the date grows only where the groundwater comes quite close to the surface, and the palm tree can reach it with its powerful, long roots. The surroundings create an oasis, to the delight of those traveling through dry areas. If you decide to grow a date palm at home, you don’t have to worry - in our latitudes, even in the hottest weather, the date will feel great.
Of the five thousand varieties of dates, all can be divided into three groups: dry, semi-dry and juicy. Naturally, juicy ones are the most expensive and delicious, but in many respects they are inferior to dry ones. The latter are known for strengthening the walls of blood vessels well and having antioxidant and antiradical activity.
Peaches, of course, do not grow on the Venezuelan peach palm. Its eighteen-meter trunk and even the leaves are covered with very sharp needle-like spines, protecting the ripening fruits from people and animals.
The egg-shaped, bright red or orange-yellow fruits are the size of a small peach or apricot and hang in huge grape-like clusters. The fleshy outer part of the fruit tastes like a chestnut and when boiled in salted water, the result is a tasty dish rich in vitamins. Sometimes these fruits are fried and eaten with molasses or drizzled with sugar syrup. In Central and South America Peach palm trees are planted in whole plantations.
The dum palm (elsewhere called the ginger palm) grows in Upper Egypt. What sets it apart from other palm trees is interesting feature. On a tree 10-12 meters high, 3-4 branches grow. Each of them ends with a bunch of fan-shaped leaves, between which flowers appear: on one tree - female, on the other - male. On female trees, the flowers give way to large clusters of beautiful shiny yellow-brown fruits. There are up to 200 of them in one bunch. The ginger palm is an important source of nutrition for the poor in Egypt (they eat the fibrous, powdery husk of the fruit, which tastes like gingerbread).
The Dum Palm is the only branching palm tree in the world.
In the swampy forests and flooded lowlands of tropical America, Africa and Madagascar, the raffia palm grows, from the sweet juice of which wine is made. The fruits and apical bud of raffia are used as food as a vegetable, and oil is squeezed out of the seeds.
Another genus of wine palms is Jubaea. It combines honey or wine palm, elephant palm and Chilean palm. They grow in the mountains along the Pacific coast of Chile up to an altitude of 1200 meters.
Their smooth 25-meter trunks with a diameter of about a meter serve as a source of sweet juice up to 400 liters from one mature tree, which, in turn, is used to make molasses (hence the name honey palm) and wine. The fruit is 4-5 centimeters long with edible pulp, similar to a coconut. The leaves are used to make fiber and also serve as roofing material.
The main source of vegetable oil in the tropics is the fruits of coconut and oil palms. Oil palm grows in the western part Equatorial Africa. Clusters of drupes hang on a trunk about 30 meters high, bearing over 150 three-meter long feathery leaves. One such cluster consists of 600-800 fruits and weighs up to 25 kilograms. The seeds of the fruit contain about 50% of the so-called palm oil used to produce margarine.
In Oceania, along with the coconut palm, which produces milk and oil, the breadfruit tree grows. All species of trees of the genus Artocarpus of the mulberry family are called cereal trees. They bear fruit in “loaves” weighing up to 12 kg! Starch accumulates in the pulp of oval fruits, which turns into... dough as it ripens. “If someone plants a breadfruit tree, he will do more to feed his descendants than a grain grower. all his life working his field by the sweat of his brow...” wrote James Cook.
Typically breadfruit trees bear fruit within 70-75 years. On one tree, 700-800 “breads” ripen annually. The fruits are filled with sweetish pulp. Drinks are made from unripe fruits, and something similar to bread is baked from ripe ones. The fruits of the Indian breadfruit tree are impressive - up to a meter in diameter! The branches could not withstand such a load, so the “loaves” grow directly on the trunk. The African breadfruit tree Traculia has smaller fruits - up to half a meter in diameter and weighing up to 14 kg. In Madagascar, the patriarch of breadfruit trees has been preserved - 20 m high, with a trunk girth of 50 m.
And pancakes are made from the starch of the sago palm, which grows in New Guinea. The palm tree blooms at the 16th year of life, although it is cut down before flowering, when in its core greatest number starch. The core is removed, pressed through a small sieve onto a hot metal surface and made into sago, which is why the palm is called sago.
Without any processing, you can consume the milky juice of the milk tree itself - the Venezuelan galactodendron. In composition it is close to cow's milk and resembles cream with sugar! And if you boil the juice, a delicious curd mass is formed.
In Madagascar you can admire a stunning tree from the begonia family with bizarre fruits. It is called sausage because on its branches there are many brown, sausage-shaped fruits hanging randomly on long stalks. Each such “sausage” can be about half a meter long and 10 cm in diameter. However, this is also the name of Japanese aucuba. Its leathery leaves are covered with golden-yellow spots and dots, somewhat reminiscent of pieces of fat on the cut of a sausage. The similarity, however, is quite distant.
Off the east coast of Africa there is a concentration of strange, peculiar forms of plant life. Here, on the rocky slopes of the mountains, you can find the cucumber tree (Dendrosicyos socotrana) - a plant with prickly wrinkled leaves, spiky fruits similar to ordinary cucumbers and a thick trunk, swollen with milky juice, consisting of soft whitish cellular tissue that is easily cut with a knife. This is the only tree in the pumpkin family.
On the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, a palm tree grows, the thickened juice of its nuts taste qualities almost no different from butter.
There are also plants - “lollipops”. For example, the leaves of the Paraguayan stevia shrub are more than 300 times sweeter than sugar, and the leaves of the Mexican sugar grass are 1000 times sweeter. The red berries of the herbaceous plant Tomatocus dannelia from the African savannah are 2000 times sweeter than sugar, and the red berries of Dioscorephyllum cumminisii from the forests of Nigeria and other West African countries are 3000 times sweeter. The sweetest plant grows in West Africa - the ketemf bush, which contains the substance toumatin, which is 100,000 times sweeter than sugar!
On the islands of Oceania there is a type of tropical tree - “cakes”. They grow in abundance with yellowish fruits that taste like sweet cakes.
The candy tree, or Japanese raisin tree, is a member of the buckthorn family, native to Japan and China - sweet howenia. To be precise, they are actually dry, and the taste of this plant candy is not for everyone: it resembles sourish, inedible raisins, but the twisted axis of the inflorescence holding them is juicy and fleshy. Each tree can produce 35 kg of “candy,” neither sweet nor flavored with rum.
In the forests grows the plant kalir-kanda, called in the local dialect “deceive the stomach.” Having eaten 1-2 leaves of it, a person feels full for a whole week, despite the fact that there are no substances in the leaves. nutrients. Due to their ability to create the illusion of satiety, tablets and infusions from the leaves of kalir-kanda are recommended for people who want to lose weight.
A plant such as a palm tree represents rejoicing, the sunny principle, glory and honesty. The straight trunk of the palm symbolizes triumph, blessing and victory. The constancy of the palm tree in its unchangeable foliage and constant greenery gave rise to the connection between the power of the tree and the symbol of victory. It is not for nothing that a palm branch has been awarded to the winner along with a laurel wreath since ancient times. Among the peoples of the territories in which it grows, the palm tree is a tree of life, self-reproducing like an androgyne.
The image of a palm tree without fruit symbolizes masculinity and in many cultures is associated with the phallic symbol - the basis of male strength. The date palm symbolizes femininity and fertility.
The palm tree, both young and old, bearing a large number of fruits, became a symbol of prosperity and longevity in old age.
Different countries give the palm tree its own symbolism, so in China the palm tree means dignity, fertility and retirement, in Arabia the palm tree is the tree of life. In Christianity, the palm tree characterizes the righteous, immortality, the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, divine blessing, paradise, and the triumph of the martyr before death. Separately, palm branches denote triumph and glory, victory over death, sin and resurrection. Early Catholicism associated the palm tree with burial and considers this plant a symbol of a person who has made a pilgrimage. In Egypt, the palm tree is classified as a calendar tree, which puts out a new branch only once a month. In Greece, the palm tree is the emblem of Apollo of Delos and Delphi.