Attalea colenda

Attalea colenda grows on well drained soil in the hilly country of W. Ecuador, S.W. Colombia and into Peru. It is related to the Babassu palm. The kernel is difficult to extract, the fruit consists of 49% meso-carp, 32% endocarp and 19% endosperm. The kernels average weight is 3.94 g and contain 56.9% oil on a dry basis (Blicher-Mathieson and Balslev, 1990). Each palm produces 3-4 fruit bunches annually weighing on average 10.7 kg (range 7-16 kg) and containing 3500-7000 fruits. It is calculated that at 50 trees/ha, 0.35-3.2 tonnes of oil per year would be produced. 

Bactris gasipaes, locally known as pejibaye, pupunha or peach palm is distributed in Central and the northern part of South America from Honduras to Bolivia. It has been domesticated by the local population for direct consumption of the fruit, but not as a source of oil (Clement and ArkcoU, 1991). 

Fatty acid compositions of the mesocarp and kernel oUs are shown in Tables 8.7 and 8.8, which show a considerable variabUity in fatty acid profile and associated physical properties. Thus the first oil in the table would be liquid in character, while those oUs with about 50% of saturated acids would be similar in behaviour to commercial palm oil. 

Fatty acid Shukla (1992) Hammond et al. (1982) Bactris major Oboh (1987) 

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Blicher-Mathieson, V. and Balslev, H. (1990) Attalea colenda (Arecaceae), a potential lauric oil resource. Econ. Bot. 44, 360-368. 

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