Oil palm trees are replanted at an interval of approximately 25 years because of decreased
oil productivity of old trees. Consequently the felled trunks are the enormous amount of
biomass resources in the palm oil producing countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. In
this report, we found that the felled oil palm trunk contains large quantity of sap, which
accounts for approximately 70% of the whole trunk weight, and that sugars existing in the
sap increased remarkably during storage after logging. Total sugar in the sap increased
from 83 mg ml1 to 153 mg ml1, the concentration comparable to that of sugar cane juice,
after 30 days of storage, followed by the gradual decrease. The sugars contained in the sap
were glucose, sucrose, fructose and galactose, all of which are fermentable by ordinary
industrial yeast strains. The results indicate that old oil palm trunk becomes a promising
source of sugars by proper aging after logging and, thus, its sap can be a good feedstock for
bioethanol.