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  • Did oil palms grow in West Africa 5000 years ago?
  • Archaeological evidence shows that palm fruit and kernels and their oil already formed an integral part of West African diets 5,000 years ago. Oil palms were not only protected as a valuable crop, they also grew well in cleared and burned areas.
  • Can small scale palm oil processing be used in West and Central Africa?
  • Sophisticated large scale technologies, on the other hand, are generally beyond the financial reach of the rural population. The present review aims at throwing more light on a third option: small scale or intermediate technologies for palm oil processing in West and Central Africa.
  • How is palm oil extracted?
  • The extraction of palm oil from oil palm fruits is practiced in many countries in Africa. The technologies for these processes are, in most cases, either still traditional or very modern. Traditional technologies usually have the advantage of requiring low investments, but are labour-intensive, inefficient and time-consuming.
  • How did African women make palm oil?
  • The fruit was then processed into palm oil by women, through a time-consuming and labour-intensive process involving repetitively boiling and filtering the fresh fruits with water – similar methods are still largely used throughout West Africa.
  • How to extract Palm oil from boiled palm fruit?
  • The extraction of palm oil from boiled palm fruit can be accomplished by handling successive batches of materials or continuously feeding material to the machines. The batch systems work directly on successive loads of boiled fruit to extract oil in one operation for clarification.
  • When did palm oil extraction & cassava processing take place in d'Ivoire?
  • d'Ivoire on small scale palm oil ext raction and cassava processing: 20 October to 6 November 1990. Addis Ababa. © UN.