Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil

Palm oil is also a highly saturated oil, containing about 50 per cent of saturated fatty acids. The only difference is that organic unrefined coconut oil is better protected against oxidation compared with palm oil.

Yaakob said other oils such as soya bean and corn which were highly unsaturated oils did not have this protection as they contained only about 15 per cent of saturated fatty acids. Asked if coconut oil was healthy, he said: "My understanding is that coconut oil is as good as any other vegetable oil.

Although (I am) not a nutritionist, in my view the supposed correlation between coronary heart disease and saturated fatty acids expounded by Western scientists during the war between the American Soybean Association and tropical oil exporters, is not an issue at all.

"Coconut oil and palm oil like all other plant oils, have virtually no cholesterol. Whatever traces found are negligible," he said. When asked about the prospects of encouraging coconut cultivation to reintroduce the production of coconut oil on a large scale in the light of moves to increase prices of palm oil-based cooking oil, he said. "Currently, it's almost a dead industry and in terms of availability, there are only a few estates left. "But in terms of usage as a cooking oil, I believe it is accepted by consumers. I don't think there will be any objection."

Explaining why oil palm cultivation was more profitable than coconut, he said: "Why plant coconuts when you can get more money from palm oil? "In terms of the amount of oil which can be extracted per hectare, oil palm produces so much more than coconut. Furthermore, the traditional method of pressing and cooking the coconut flesh to extract oil, can yield only 30 to 40 per cent of oil."

However, Yaakob said a recent breakthrough in extraction methods could be the key to the comeback of coconut oil production. "I have come up with a microbial method of extraction, using a pure culture to produce enzymes in the coconut cream.

"These enzymes will ease the separation of oil from protein and other substances. This method can extract an amazing 95 per cent of oil from coconut flesh and is so pure, that it does not need to be refined. "The virgin oil' produced has a high content of Vitamin E and meets the Grade 1 standard of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community."