Oil palms are tall, slender plants that originate in tropical west Africa and are now cultivated in vast plantations there and in southeast Asia. This palm produces two important cooking oils. Reddish orange palm oil comes from the pulp of the fruit. This flavorful oil is high in saturated fat, and is popular with West African and Brazilian cooks. Palm kernel oil, a major ingredient in margarine, is stored in the seed or kernel at the core of the palm's fruit. (HFHA Coll.)

Palm oil processing in West Africa. (Photo by Patricio Goycolea and published in Plants for People by Anna Lewington.) (HFHA Coll.)