1.0 Introduction
Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the palmElaeis gulneensis. Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oil derived from fruits and seeds of palm trees respectively. (Okonkwo, 2010).
Palm oil should not be confused with palm kernel oil and coconut oil because palm oil is naturally reddish in color, due to its high content of beta-carotenes. It is semi solid at room temperature. Palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil are three of the few highly saturated vegetable fat.
Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa Nigeria, Malaysia, South East Asia and Parts of Brazil. Its increasing use in the commercial food industry in other part of the world is buoyed by its lower cost and high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying (Cottrell, 1991).
Red palm oil is a highly nutritious food ingredient and its name is driven from its characteristic dark red color, which comes from carotenes and lycopene the same nutrients that gives tomatoes, carots, and other fruits and vegetables, their rich colors (Mensink, 1992).
Red palm oil contains at least 10 (ten) other carotenes along with tocopherols and tocotrienols (members of vitamine E) phytosterols and glicolipids (Benade, 2003).
According to Folklore, Nursing mother “By adding red palm oil into their food (diets) can double or triple the amount of vitamin A in breast milk in addition to all the carotene bodies”. (Tay et al, 2000).
Among all these nutritional important of palm oil it is found that there are traces of toxic heavy metals in red palm oil. (Syr-song-chen, 2003).
These heavy metals includes Arsenic, chromium among other metals. The study of arsenic in red oil in Taiwan, China reveals that the acceptable value of organic arsenic in edible red palm oil is 0.1ppm (Anon, 1993). No study has shown on other metals like copper, lead, mercury, Aluminum to name but a few on red edible oil.
Arsenic is a hazardous heavy metal; the malignant symptoms may appear even when trace arsenic is ingested. The toxicity of arsenic has been shown that it binds to enzymes which are inhibited functioning (Wang, 1989), the toxicity of arsenic depends on the forms of chemical compound. The trivalent arsenic shows high toxicity. It can be relatively retained in the tissue, but slows excretion. The organic arsenic complex which is commonly found in food are readily absorbed in the body and excreted through urination (Anon, 1993).
1.1 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that reports of red palm oil adulteration had been published without distinction. Nigerians are experiencing a rise in the proliferation of cancerous cells. (Song-chen Syr-2003).
It's speculated that red oil or tainted palm oil contain heavy metal residues that, when consumed over time in food cooked with such oil, might cause cancerous growths to form in the body.
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