Palm oil: the most powerful antioxidant oil in Africa

Palm oil – ‘God’s gift to humanity’, is like crude oil on a tree. Before the discovery of crude oil, just before or after the partition of Africa, the Niger River Delta region of West Africa (Bight of Biafra) was known as the “oil belt”. It supplied thousands of boatloads of palm oil on which cities like Liverpool and Bristol were built.

Considering the culinary use of this antioxidant, it is the only vegetable oil that has a balance of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. It actually contains many of the essential fatty acids needed for efficient fat metabolism. It is the richest source of beta-carotene (carotenoids), powerful antioxidants; vitamin A. Fresh palm oil, as used in African cooking, contains all of these. It is a natural medicine! It is a hidden secret that pure vegetable oil, as it is sold in most outlets, is obtained from the fractionation of palm oil.

It also gives the color yellow to West African cuisines found among Diaspora Africans. Africans, initially residing in southern India, began using ingredients like turmeric and saffron to replicate this yellow coloration.

This antioxidant is also the source of commercially sold ‘white butter’, branded as ‘Trex’ or known in the spice manufacturing industry as ‘palm oil pearls’.

Peanut oil, also known as groundnut oil, is a flavorful organic oil derived from the groundnut (groundnut), reported to have the aroma and flavor of its parent vegetable. In the UK it is known as “peanut oil”. Peanut oil is most commonly used for frying foods, particularly ‘french fries’ and chicken. It is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Corn oil or maize oil is extracted from the germ of corn (maize). Its main use is in cooking, where its high smoke point makes refined corn oil a valuable frying oil.

Other types of oils include peanut – tasty; Sunflower, (popular in Europe), Sesame Seed, increasingly available in the Middle East) and rarefied butter (Mai-n-shanu) known as Gee in India.

There are other potential sources of quality cooking oils yet to be tapped!