Abstract

Palm oil is a vegetable oil obtained from fruit of palm tree named Elaeis Guineensis. Palm oil is often preferred due to low cost in food industry. The health effects of palm oil produced in many countries, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, is a matter of curiosity. Because there is conflicting evidence that palm oil containing high levels of antioxidants such as vitamin E and carotenoid has positive effects on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer as well as negative effects due to saturated fat content and chloropropanols formed after refining at high temperature. However, studies have shown that other vegetable oils exposed to high temperatures also have negative effects. There are opinions that palm oil is more harmful than other vegetable oils recently. For this reason, the health effects of palm oil will be discussed in the light of the evidence-based data.