Oil palm (Elaeis) is an important industrial plant producing cooking oil, industrial oil, and fuel (biodiesel). Its plantations generate huge profits so that many old forests and plantations are converted into oil palm plantations. Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil. In Indonesia its distribution in Aceh, east coast of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi.
Oil palm cultivated consists of two types: E. guineensis and E. oleifera. The first type of the widest cultivated person. of the two species of oil palm has its own advantages. E. guineensis has a very high production and E. oleifera has a low plant height. many people are crossing these two species to get high production species and are easily harvested. E. oleifera is now beginning to be cultivated as well to add to the diversity of genetic resources.
Breeders often see the type of oil palm based on the thickness of the shell, which consists of
Dura,
Pisifera, and
Tenera.
Dura is a palm whose fruit has a thick shell that is considered to shorten the life of processing machines but usually large fruit bunches and oil content per cluster ranges 18%. Pisifera fruit does not have a shell, so it does not have a core (kernel) that produces economic oil and sterile females so very rarely produce fruit. Tenera is a cross between the parent Dura and the male Pisifera. This species is considered a superior seed because it complements the deficiencies of each parent with the nature of thin fruit shells but the females remain fertile. Some superior tenera have a percentage of meat per fruit reaching 90% and oil content per bunch can reach 28%.