Pure Coconut Oil

The technique has significantly improved the extraction of pure coconut oil, in terms of yield and quality, over the traditional wet process currently practiced in many countries.

Yaakob said a paper on this technology had been published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society and was also available on the Internet. "Although this technique has only been proven successful in the laboratory, its adoption commercially on a pilot scale will determine the feasibility of coconut oil production," he said. He said two other oil extraction techniques he had invented, had also produced higher and better quality yield.

The enzymatic extraction method and acid treatment technique managed to extract 73 and 60 per cent of coconut oil respectively, both of which did not have to be refined. Yaakob said the acid treatment method had been adopted in several plantations in Indonesia, the world's second largest producer of coconut oil.

Once leading the world's coconut oil export, production in Malaysia has since been superseded by the palm oil industry. There are 15 coconut oil factories nationwide, compared with 124 palm oil mills, according to a survey by the Statistics Department. Last year, it was reported that the total area planted with coconut nationwide was 290,000 hectares, 92 per cent of which was cultivated by smallholders.

The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) announced on Tuesday that it has begun studies on determining the efficacy of coconut oil derivatives in curing infectious diseases. Dr. Conrado Dayrit, president of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) said that about seven research teams have been formed by his office, in coordination with the Department of Health, to clinically study the effects of medium chain monoglycerides (MCM), a coconut oil derivative, for curing diseases such as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Hepatitis viruses, herpes and the like.

DoST's initiative came upon a research by a US-based scientist who discovered the anti-pathogenic action of MCMs against positive bacteria, lipid viruses, algae, fungi in laboratory testing.

Dr. Jon Kabara, a scientist from the Michigan State University announced his findings to the Philippine government recently, prompting the DoST to verify his studies. In the conference, Philippine Coconut Research and Development Foundation (PCRDF) chairman Maria Clara Lobregat said Dr. Kabara's discovery will undoubtedly boost the coconut oleochemical industry in the country. She said that with the PCRDF already engaged in the development of coconut oil in the past 25 years, the discovery on the MCMs will mean that "coconut oil will be the new health oil in the next millennium" she added.