Trees II


Book Description

'frees contribute a major part of fuel, fodder and fruit, and are an im of bioenergy. They are now needed in large numbers more portant source than ever before for afforestation and social forestry, so that fast-grow ing and multipurpose trees assume great importance. After extensive in discriminate deforestation and rapid depletion of genetic stocks, efforts are now being made to evolve methods for clonal mass propagation of improved and elite trees. Production of short-duration trees with a rapid turnover of biomass, and induction of genetic variability through in vitro manipulation for the production of novel fruit and forest trees, which are high-yielding and resistant to pests and diseases, and trees which display increased photosynthetic efficiency are in demand. These objectives are well within the realm of horticultural and forest biotech nology. Some of the recent advances, such as the regeneration of com plete trees from isolated protoplasts, somatic hybridization, and the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in various tree species have opened new vistas for the genetic engineering of fruit and forest trees. This book is a continuation of the earlier volume Trees I, and presents 31 chapters on fruit, forest, nut and ornamental trees, such as avocado, pineapple, crabapple, quince, pistachio, walnut, hazelnut, date palm, oil palm, cacao, rubber, maple, sweet-gum, poplars, birches, Chinese tallow, willows, oaks, paper mulberry, rhododendrons, Scots pine, Calabrian pine, Douglas-fir, redwood, ginkgo, cycads and some flowering trees.




The Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis Jacq.)


Book Description

The origin and development of the oil palm industry. The botany of the oil palm. The climates and soils of the oil palm regions. Factors affecting growth, flowering and yield. Oil palm selection and breeding. Germination and the preparation and storage of seed. The raising of nursery seedlings. The preparation of land for oil palm plantations. The establishment of oil palms in the field. The care and maintenance of a plantation. The nutrition of the oil palm. Mixed cropping, rearing livestock among oil palms and tapping for wine. Diseases and pests of the oil palm. The products of the oil palm and their extraction.







The Agronomy and Economy of Important Tree Crops of the Developing World


Book Description

Major tree crops contribute substantially to the economy of many developing countries on the Asian, African and Latin American continents. For example, coffee is the main revenue earner for Kenya. This book provides a comprehensive review of the agronomy, botany, taxonomy, genetics, chemistry, economics, and future global prospects of a range of crops that have great food, industrial and economic value such as cocoa, coffee, cashew, oil palm and natural rubber. - Discusses the major tree crops of great economic value to the developing world - The author is an eminent scientist who has won numerous awards for his work in this area




The Oil Palm


Book Description

The oil palm is the world's most valuable oil crop. Its production has increased over the decades, reaching 56 million tons in 2013, and it gives the highest yields per hectare of all oil crops. Remarkably, oil palm has remained profitable through periods of low prices. Demand for palm oil is also expanding, with the edible demand now complemented by added demand from biodiesel producers. The Oil Palm is the definitive reference work on this important crop. This fifth edition features new topics - including the conversion of palm oil to biodiesel, and discussions about the impacts of palm oil production on the environment and effects of climate change alongside comprehensively revised chapters, with updated references throughout. The Oil Palm, Fifth Edition will be useful to researchers, plantation and mill managers who wish to understand the science underlying recommended practices. It is an indispensable reference for agriculture students and all those working in the oil palm industry worldwide.




Oil Palm Breeding


Book Description

The oil palm is a remarkable crop, producing around 40% of the world’s vegetable oil from around 6% of the land devoted to oil crops. Conventional breeding has clearly been the major focus of genetic improvement in this crop. A mix of improved agronomy and management, coupled with breeding selection have quadrupled the oil yield of the crop since breeding began in earnest in the 1920s. However, as for all perennial crops with long breeding cycles, oil palm faces immense challenges in the coming years with increased pressure from population growth, climate change and the need to develop environmentally sustainable oil palm plantations. In Oil Palm: Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, world leading organizations and individuals who have been at the forefront of developments in this crop, provide their insights and experiences of oil palm research, while examining the different challenges that face the future of the oil palm. The editors have all been involved in research and breeding of oil palm for many years and use their knowledge of the crop and their disciplinary expertise to provide context and to introduce the different research topics covered.




Fruit Oils: Chemistry and Functionality


Book Description

Fruit Oils: Chemistry and Functionality presents a comprehensive overview of recent advances in the chemistry and functionality of lipid bioactive phytochemicals found in fruit oils. The chapters in this text examine the composition, physicochemical characteristics and organoleptic attributes of each of the major fruit oils. The nutritional quality, oxidative stability, and potential food and non-foodapplications of these oils are also extensively covered. The potential health benefits of the bioactive lipids found in these fruit oils are also a focus of this text. For each oil presented, the levels of omega-9, omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are specified, indicating the level of health-promoting traits exhibited in each. The oils and fats extracted from fruits generally differ from one another both in terms of their major and minor bioactive constituents. The methods used to extract oils and fats as well as the processing techniques such as refining, bleaching and deodorization affect their major and minor constituents. In addition, different post-processing treatments of fruit oils and fats may alert or degrade important bioactive constituents. Treatments such as heating, frying, cooking and storage and major constituents such as sterols and tocols are extensively covered in this text. Although there have been reference works published on the composition and biological properties of lipids from oilseeds, there is currently no book focused on the composition and functionality of fruit oils. Fruit Oils: Chemistry and Functionality aims to fill this gap for researchers, presenting a detailed overview of the chemical makeup and functionality of all the important fruit oils.




Legumes and Oilseed Crops I


Book Description




The Oil Palm Genome


Book Description

This book compiles the fundamental advances resulting from of oil-palm genome and transcriptome sequencing, and describes the challenges faced and strategies applied in sequencing, assembling and annotating oil palm genome sequences. The availability of genome and transcriptome data has made the mining of a high number of new molecular markers useful for genetic diversity as well as marker-trait association studies and the book presents high-throughput genotyping platforms, which allow the detection of QTL regions associated with interesting oil palm traits such as oil unsaturation and yield components using classical genetic and association mapping approaches. Lastly, it also presents the discovery of major genes governing economically important traits of the oil palm. Covering the history of oil palm expansion, classical and molecular cytogenetics, improvements based on wild and advanced genetic materials, and the science of oil palm breeding, the book is a valuable resource for scientists involved in plant genetic research.




Oil Palm


Book Description

Oil palms are ubiquitous—grown in nearly every tropical country, they supply the world with more edible fat than any other plant and play a role in scores of packaged products, from lipstick and soap to margarine and cookies. And as Jonathan E. Robins shows, sweeping social transformations carried the plant around the planet. First brought to the global stage in the holds of slave ships, palm oil became a quintessential commodity in the Industrial Revolution. Imperialists hungry for cheap fat subjugated Africa's oil palm landscapes and the people who worked them. In the twentieth century, the World Bank promulgated oil palm agriculture as a panacea to rural development in Southeast Asia and across the tropics. As plantation companies tore into rainforests, evicting farmers in the name of progress, the oil palm continued its rise to dominance, sparking new controversies over trade, land and labor rights, human health, and the environment. By telling the story of the oil palm across multiple centuries and continents, Robins demonstrates how the fruits of an African palm tree became a key commodity in the story of global capitalism, beginning in the eras of slavery and imperialism, persisting through decolonization, and stretching to the present day.