Abyssinian Oil
Also: Crambe abyssinica seed oil, Crambe oil, Abyssinian kale oil, Crambe abyssinica Hochst. seed oil.
Calculate a 100 % Abyssinian Oil bar
That is stoichiometry on a measured composition rather than a guess, and it is about as well determined as a published figure: checked against the 35 Codex oils where both fields come from the same standard, the method's median error is 0.90 % and its 90th percentile 2.74 %, with no meaningful bias. The formula page shows the working. If you have a certificate of analysis for your lot, enter its measured value in the calculator and this estimate is set aside.
Published values
| Saponification value | not published |
| Derived from composition | 169.8 ± 3 % mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 169.8 mg KOH/g (derived) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1211 g/g |
| Iodine value | 88 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 82 |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | — |
A bar made of 100 % Abyssinian Oil
Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.
Fatty-acid profile
| Fatty acid | Published range, % | Used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 · saturated | 3.4 | 3.4 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 17.8 | 17.8 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 6.1 | 6.1 |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 · saturated | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| Behenic acid | C22:0 · saturated | 2.14–3.7 (typ. 3.7) | 3.7 |
| Erucic acid | C22:1 | 56.23–63.77 (typ. 56.7) | 56.7 |
Where these numbers come from
Tabela 1 physical and chemical parameters of crambe oil (density, kinematic viscosity, iodine value 88 gI2/100g, acid value 3.64 mg KOH/g, water content); Tabela 2 fatty-acid composition (%). The journal's own site, nucleus.feituverava.com.br, did not respond on 2026-09-21, so the DOI target could not be opened; the Dialnet copy of the same article PDF was read instead.
Crambe variety FMS 1 Brilhante, Planaltina DF, 2022 safrinha: oil content 35.13 %, erucic acid 56.23-56.3 %, acidity 0.42 %, Rancimat oxidative stability 25.46 h. Its Tabela 2 extracts with misaligned columns and was not transcribed acid-by-acid; only the erucic figure, which the running text and conclusion both state, is used.
Full text is paywalled; only the abstract deposited with Crossref was read. It supplies C22:1 63.77 %, C22:0 2.14 %, seed oil content ~30 %, beta-sitosterol 51.93 % of sterols, tocopherols 7.67/125.04/3.99 mg/kg, Rancimat induction 8.83 h at 110 C, DSC peak -20.94 C. It states that a saponification value was determined but does not print it.
ERUCIC ACID IS THE POINT OF THIS OIL and the figure here is measured, not inherited: Tabela 2 of Jasper, Biaggioni & Silva, Nucleus 10(2):183-190 (2013), a Brazilian peer-reviewed characterisation of Crambe abyssinica Hochst. oil and its biodiesel, gives palmitic 3.4, stearic 1.1, oleic 17.8, linoleic 6.1, linolenic 2.8, arachidic 1.7, eicosenoic (C20:1) 6.7, behenic 3.7 and erucic (C22:1) 56.7 %, with the paper's own saturated/unsaturated totals of 9.9 and 90.1 % - the nine acids sum to exactly 100.0 % and reproduce both totals, which is how the row/value assignment was checked (the PDF's table columns extract out of order). The running text states the erucic figure independently: 'o acido erucico correspondeu a 56,7% da composicao dos acidos graxos'. Corroborated by Embrapa Agroenergia, which measured 56.23-56.3 % erucic in crambe variety FMS 1 Brilhante grown at Planaltina, DF (2022 safrinha), and by the abstract of Lalas et al., JAOCS 89(12):2253-2258 (2012), which reports 63.77 % C22:1 and 2.14 % C22:0 in a Greek hexane-extracted crambe oil. So erucic ranges roughly 56-64 % by cultivar and season; 56.7 % is used as typical because it is the one figure that comes with a complete, self-consistent profile. NO SAPONIFICATION VALUE IS RECORDED, and that is deliberate. Jasper et al. measured density (911.3 kg/m3), kinematic viscosity (49.02 mm2/s), iodine value (88 g I2/100 g), acid value (3.64 mg KOH/g) and water content (803.4 mg/kg) but not the saponification value. Lalas et al. state in their abstract that they determined one, but the number appears only in the paywalled full text, and the abstract does not print it. Every other figure on offer traces back to a soap calculator or a supplier page, which this dataset will not copy. The calculator will derive a value from the profile instead: the recorded composition implies about 170 mg KOH/g. WHAT MATTERS FOR SOAP: that derived figure is far lower than any common oil because more than half the fat is a 22-carbon acid - erucic weighs 338 g/mol against oleic's 282, so a gram of abyssinian oil contains fewer ester bonds and eats correspondingly less lye. Treating it as 'another liquid oil' at ~190 will over-lye the batch by roughly 10 %. The measured iodine value of 88 is moderate and matches the profile (one double bond on a long chain contributes little iodine per gram), which is why the oil is oxidatively stable - Embrapa measured a 25.5 h Rancimat induction period, nearly three times canola's 8.7 h in the same run. Behenic at 2-4 % and no lignoceric were reported by Jasper; Lalas additionally found nervonic acid (C24:1), which has no key in this schema and is not recorded. Lalas reports a single DSC thermal peak at -20.94 C; because the abstract does not say whether that is the melting or the crystallisation event, meltingPointC is left null rather than guessed. Unsaponifiable matter was not measured in any document opened. INCI not verified on CosIng in this session, left null.
This record is part of the open ingredient database (ODbL). Found an error or a better primary source? The dataset is on GitHub; corrections with a document link are welcome.