Editing Palm oil (section)

==History==
[[File:Elaeis guineensis MS 3467.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Oil palm]]s (''Elaeis guineensis'')]]
Humans used oil palms as far back as 5,000 years. In the late 1800s, archaeologists discovered a substance that they concluded was originally palm oil in a tomb at [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]] dating back to 3,000 BCE.<ref name=Kiple>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge World History of Food |editor1-last=Kiple |editor1-first=Kenneth F. |editor2-last=Conee Ornelas |editor2-first=Kriemhild |year=2000 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0521402163|url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/palmoil.htm |access-date=30 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020201103/http://www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/palmoil.htm |archive-date=20 October 2012}}</ref>

Palm oil from ''[[Elaeis guineensis]]'' has long been recognized in West and Central African countries used widely as a [[cooking oil]]. European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm oil for use as a cooking oil in Europe.

Palm oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders for use as an industrial [[lubricant]] for machinery during Britain's [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>{{cite journal | year = 2000 | title = British Colonial Policies and the Oil Palm Industry in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, 1900–1960. | url = http://www.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/21-1/19-33.pdf | journal = African Study Monographs |volume = 21|issue=1|pages=19–33|url-status= live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130116234451/http://www.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/21-1/19-33.pdf | archive-date = 16 January 2013 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> Palm oil formed the basis of [[soap]] products, such as [[Lever Brothers]]' (now [[Unilever]]) "[[Sunlight (cleaning product)|Sunlight]]" soap, and the American [[Palmolive (soap)|Palmolive]] brand.<ref>{{cite web |first=Mary |last=Bellis |title=The History of Soaps and Detergents |url=http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsoap.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120714204434/http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsoap.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 July 2012 |website=[[About.com]] |quote=In 1864, Caleb Johnson founded a soap company called B.J. Johnson Soap Co., in Milwaukee. In 1898, this company introduced a soap made of palm and olive oils called Palmolive. }}</ref>

By around 1870, palm oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries, which often led to oppressive labor practices, as highlighted in the account of Abina Mansah's life.<ref>Getz, Trevor and Liz Clarke (2011). Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History. Oxford University Press.</ref> However,  this was overtaken by [[Cocoa bean|cocoa]] in the 1880s with the introduction of colonial European cocoa plantations.<ref>{{Cite web| url= http://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1_cocoa_report_2004.pdf|title= The Cocoa Industry in West Africa: A History of Exploitation| year= 2004| website= antislavery.org| publisher= [[Anti-Slavery International]] | page= 5| access-date= October 11, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title= Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa | first1= Robin| last1= Law| first2= Suzanne| last2= Schwarz| first3= Silke | last3= Strickrodt| publisher= Boydell & Brewer Ltd| year= 2013| page= 22| isbn= 978-1-847-01075-9}}</ref>