Preparation of phytol from the biomass of the oil plam industry

Abstract

The cultivation of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in Malaysia has led to an increase in its biomass which could be used to produce value-added products. In this project, a study has been carried out to assess the potential of using oil palm leaves as a source of phytol. which is currently being used as one of the precursors for preparing vitamin E and K. In this study, phytol was isolated and purified from the chlorophylls extracts obtained from the oil palm leaves and the structure of the phytol isolated was elucidated by using uv and IR. spectroscopy.