Improving nutritional quality and stability of palm oil produced by African smallholders to fulfil African consumers needs – VITAPALM

We will carefully design and test an appropriate sampling strategy: samples need to be small enough to be processed rapidly but large enough to be representative; the developmental stages of fruits need to be comparable; we will favor short intense harvesting campaigns so that fruits have grown under similar environmental conditions; because harvesting and processing is highly labor-intensive, we will develop a solid procedure to avoid any mixing or mis-labelling of samples during processing.
We will extract lipids and analyze fatty acid composition by gas chromatography (GC-FID) and vitamins by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), while % free fatty acids will be determined after a freeze-thaw cycle to accommodate for lipase assay.
Using individual DNA samples, we will map 500-700 polymorphic markers covering all genome regions using appropriate high throughput genotyping technologies (Sequenom) to roughly localize QTLs, and additional markers will be used to refine mapping. This will lead to identify genome regions responsible for the traits and molecular markers that will be used for future marker-assisted introgression of the traits into elite trees.

The whole project suffers from a serious delay, due to absence of funding to our African partners.

Palm oil fruits of 110 different wild accession of African oil palm and the progeny of two populations from two crosses with elite lines were screened. Considerable variations in the contents of C16:0 (palmitic acid) and C18:1 (oleic acid) were found. Lines with low C16:0 (low saturated fat) were identified and are now available for mapping of the corresponding loci to the genome. Measurements of free fatty acids are underway. The most abundant vitamin E compounds in the palm oil are a-tocopherol, a-tocotrienol, e-tocotrienol and d-tocotrienol, and the major provitamin A components are a-carotene and ß-carotene. We found a huge variation for vitamin E and provitamin A contents. Genomic analysis has been initiated using the MassArray (Sequenom) iPLEX system from Agena Bioscience. We expect to identify many more lines with highly interesting and economically relevant traits by screening the additional wild accessions and elite lines available at Kade, Ghana, and Dibamba, Cameroon.
All four partners participated in meetings and conferences where the goals and results of the VITAPALM and LEAP-Agri initiatives were presented to stakeholders, scientists and to the public. The partners also organized own workshops for the dissemination of results. These activities were received very positively. We will continue with the dissemination and outreach activities in the future.

The characterization of wild accessions with improved traits including the mapping of the corresponding loci in the genome is anticipated to be available next year. These traits will then be introduced into the elite lines by the breeders in collaboration with partners 2 and 4 in Ghana and Cameroon. The improved elite lines will be grown for oil production by smallholders. This improved oil will have a longer shelf life and will be sold at higher prices in local and distal markets, with the potential of improving the nutritional quality for a large proportion of the population in Africa. The results of the VITAPALM project are in line with the original impact pathway and have the full potential to achieve the anticipated impact. However, due to lack of funding in Ghana and Cameroon, the work towards achieving the impact has been strongly delayed.

Several scientific publications are in preparation.

The aim of the project is to breed new varieties of oil palm that produce non-refined crude oil with improved nutritional qualities (lower saturated fat, higher levels of vitamins) and increased stability (low-lipase content). For this purpose, we will take advantage of natural variability within E. guineensis
elite genitors to select appropriate trees, and we will also include wild palm trees. We will carry out genetic analyses to identify molecular markers for future marker-assisted selection. At last, we will perform an in depth study on the flexibility brought by low-lipase lines to define new harvesting
practices compatible with those of smallholders, and leading to oil with lower free fatty acid levels. We expect that more stable crude oil with high levels of vitamins will prove an important asset to reduce vitamin A deficiency in Africa. Also, consumers will pay a premium for improved crude palm
oil, leading to increased income for African smallholders.