Palm oil and coconut oil are more like animal fats than are other plant oils. because they than other plant oils

it provides an alternative energy pathway for the reaction to proceed.

a catalyst is a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction but is not consumed during the course of the reaction.

catalysts increase the rate of reaction without being used up. they do this by lowering the activation energy needed. with a catalyst, more collisions result in a reaction, so the rate of reaction increases. different reactions need different catalysts.

a catalyst works by providing an alternative reaction pathway to the reaction product. the rate of the reaction is increased as this alternative route has a lower activation energy than the reaction route not mediated by the catalyst.

plants absorb water from the soil by osmosis. root hair cells are adapted for this by having a large surface area to speed up osmosis. the absorbed water is transported through the roots to the rest of the plant where it is used for different purposes: it transports dissolved minerals around the plant.