• In Malaysia, palm oil industry has been started since 1917. Fresh Fruit Bunches from oil palm trees are harvested and extracted to collect palm oil.
• Other than palm oil, fruit shells, fruit bunches, tree trunk and palm press fiber also can be used.
• One of the main contributions of oil palm tree to the society is the oil palm trunk fiber (OPF) which extracted from the oil palm trunk
• Scientists have developed an advance technology for OPF extractiondespite of the difficulty to extract dietary fiber from trunks as parenchyma cells and dietary fiber adhered around the vascular bundle within the trunk
• OPF contains more than 70% of fiber, the most outstanding one is lignin
• Lignin can bind to many substances such as cholesterol, bile salts, fats, carbohydrates and even toxin and help in detoxification.

Clinically Proven Efficacy

Interaction of lignin- rich fraction with gut microbiota in vitro

• In a vitro study, there was no inhibition on the growth of strains of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria after incubation with the lignin- rich fraction
• Compared to glucose, lignin- rich fraction enabled bifidobacterial to survive longer with glucose
• During the fermentation, several transient phenolic compounds were believed to be originated from lignin
• All the results observed above indicated the gut microbiota was able to partially degrade lignin and metabolize the released compounds.

Distribution of Lignin in Oil Palm Trunk

• Lignin appears to be evenly distributed throughout the tree
• The core in the upper region was slightly deficient in lignin whilst the bottom contains excessive amount
• The higher lignin content of the lower trunk is due to the thickening of the older vascular bundles
• On a side note the ash content is quite similar throughout the height of trunk.