Oil palm cultivation is frequently cited as a major threat to tropical biodiversity as it is centered on some of the world's most biodiverse regions. In this report, Web of Science was used to find papers on oil palm published since 1970, which were assigned to different subject categories to visualize their research focus. Recent years have seen a broadening in the scope of research, with a sl...

Both diastereoisomers of S-tert-butyl-beta-(trifluoromethyl)isocysteine have been synthesized stereoselectively by the sequential reactions of trifluoroacetimidoyl chloride with the lithium enolate of tert-butyl alpha-tert-butylthioacetate, followed by the diastereoselective reduction of the imino group with sodium borohydride in the presence of zinc(II) or di(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether, a...

Wax esters are esters of long-chain fatty acids and long-chain fatty alcohols which are of considerable commercial importance and are produced on a scale of 3 million tons per year. The oil from the jojoba plant (Simmondsia chinensis) is the main biological source of wax esters. Although it has a multitude of potential applications, the use of jojoba oil is restricted, due to its high price. In...

The phenolic antioxidants 2,6-ditertiary-butyl paracresol (DBPC) (also known as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)) and 2,6-ditertiary-butyl phenol (DBP) are the two most common oxidation inhibitors added to the electrical insulating (transformer) oil and mineral oil based lubricants. The typical recommended value of DBPC and DBP in fresh electrical insulating oil is approximately 0.3% by weight. T...

To investigate the influence of different dietary fats on lipids and anti-cardiolipin antibody levels, autoimmune NZB/W F1 mice were fed on diets containing 200 g dietary fat as palm oil, lard-soyabean oil (1:1, w/w), soyabean oil, rapeseed oil or fish oil/kg. In addition, each dietary fat group was divided into an early-feeding group with feeding from 2 months of age, and a late-feeding group ...

Modulation of myelopoiesis by three synthetic muramyl peptides was investigated in vivo. Two adjuvant-active compounds (N-acetylmuramyl dipeptide [MDP] and MDP-butyl-ester) elicited significant responses in DBA/2 mice characterized by a rise in the level of monocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating activity in serum, a proliferation of multipotential stem cells in the bone marrow, and an expansion...

Intravenous lipid emulsions (ILE) have demonstrated advantages including prevention of essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency; however, too much EFA can down regulate fatty acid elongation leading to an imbalance of nutritional compounds in plasma and cell membranes. An olive oil-based ILE containing long-chain triacylglycerols (LCT) with a low content (20 %) of PUFA was administered for home pa...

A tung oil (TO) based monomer for rigid thermosetting polymer was synthesized, characterized, and copolymerized with styrene in this study. Tung oil was alcoholyzed with pentaerythritol (PER) to get tung oil pentaerythritol alcoholysis products (TOPER), and the optimized conditions were explored according to the yields of TOPER analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The resul...

In the past few months considerable prominence has been given in the local media over the beneficial qualities of palm oil and in particular some of its health promoting properties. This has been a latent response to the campaign against palm oil by the American soyabean lobby as well as the aborted ASA proposed Tropical Oils Labelling Bill. The. national concern over this issue is understandab...

Lipases are promising enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol ester bonds at the oil/water interface. Apart from allowing biocatalyst reuse, immobilization can also affect enzyme structure consequently influencing its activity, selectivity, and stability. The lipase from Penicillium sp. section Gracilenta (CBMAI 1583) was successfully immobilized on supports bearing butyl, pheny...