Avocado Oil
INCI Persea Gratissima Oil. Saponified with NaOH it is listed as Sodium Avocadoate, with KOH as Potassium Avocadoate. CAS 8024-32-6; EC 232-428-0, as CosIng gives them. Also: Persea americana fruit oil, Persea gratissima oil.
Published values
| Saponification value | 170–202 mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 186.0 mg KOH/g (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1326 g/g |
| Iodine value | 75–95 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 101 |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | ≤ 2 % |
Soapmaking books print about 0.133 g NaOH per g (median of 9 books), which agrees with ours to within 2 %.
A bar made of 100 % Avocado Oil
Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.
How much lye
| Oil | NaOH | KOH |
|---|---|---|
| 500 g | 63.0 g(57.6–68.4) | 88.4 g(80.8–96.0) |
| 1 kg | 126.0 g(115.1–136.8) | 176.7 g(161.5–191.9) |
| 1 lb (454 g) | 57.1 g(52.2–62.1) | 80.2 g(73.3–87.0) |
| 2 lb (907 g) | 114.3 g(104.4–124.1) | 160.3 g(146.5–174.1) |
For this oil alone at 5 % superfat, with pure sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or pure potassium hydroxide (KOH); in brackets, across the published range of its saponification value. KOH is usually sold at 90 %: divide by 0.9. For a whole recipe, open the calculator.
Fatty-acid profile
Saturated : unsaturated 18 : 82
| Fatty acid | Published range, % | Used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 · saturated | 5–25 | 15.0 |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 1–12 | 6.5 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | ≤ 3 | 3.0 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 50–74 | 62.0 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 6–20 | 13.0 |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | ≤ 3 | 3.0 |
Recipes that use it
- Avocado and cucumber bar 25 % of the oils
- Rice bran and avocado bar 25 % of the oils
- French green clay facial bar 20 % of the oils
- Dead Sea mud facial bar 15 % of the oils
- Luxury bar 15 % of the oils
- Unscented shampoo bar 15 % of the oils
- Indigo and annatto funnel pour bar 10 % of the oils
- Liquid shampoo 10 % of the oils
- Patchouli and orange swirl bar 10 % of the oils
- Red wine bar 10 % of the oils
- Rose clay and rose petal bar 10 % of the oils
- Cream and honey luxury bar 8 % of the oils
Guides that discuss it
- Dreaded orange spots (DOS) and rancid soap
- SAP values: what they measure and why tables disagree
- The soaping oils: what each one brings to a bar
Compared with other oils
Where these numbers come from
Internet Archive capture (2 August 2026) of the FAO file, which is Cloudflare-gated directly; the capture is gzip-encoded. Table A2 (crude oils; advisory): avocado oil relative density 0.910-0.920 (20 C), refractive index (ND 40 C) 1.458-1.470, saponification value 170-202 mg KOH/g, iodine value 78-95, unsaponifiable matter 19.0 g/kg. Table 1: C14:0 ND-0.3, C16:0 11.0-26.0, C16:1 4.0-17.1, C17:0 ND-0.3, C17:1 ND-0.1, C18:0 0.1-1.3, C18:1 42.0-75.0, C18:2 7.8-19.0, C18:3 0.5-2.1, C20:0 ND-0.7, C20:1 ND-0.3, C22:0 ND-0.5, C24:0 ND-0.2, C24:1 ND-0.2 %. Read with pdftotext -table.
Values are the DAC (Deutscher Arzneimittel-Codex) 'Avocado oil, refined' limits as transcribed on the Gustav Heess specification sheet: iodine value 75.0-95.0; unsaponifiable max 2.0 %; acid value max 1.0; <C16 max 2.0, palmitic 5.0-25.0, palmitoleic 1.0-12.0, stearic max 3.0, oleic (+isomer) 50.0-74.0, linoleic 6.0-20.0, linolenic max 3.0, other FA max 1.0 %. The sheet prints no saponification value. The cold-pressed sheet (Sp204020b) gives the same FA ranges (palmitoleic 1.0-13.0) and no SAP/IV. Codex added avocado oil to CXS 210 in 2024; the 2026 print, read from an Internet Archive copy of the FAO file, gives 170-202 mg KOH/g for the crude oil, and that replaces the value derived from composition (194.0). The derived figure is about 4 % higher because it assumes pure triglyceride, and avocado oil carries more unsaponifiable matter (sterols, squalene, fatty alcohols) than most oils. A refined oil (unsaponifiable max. 2.0 % on the DAC sheet) will sit in the upper half of the band. Codex's iodine value (78-95) and fatty-acid ranges are also available now.
This record is part of the open ingredient database (ODbL), which you can download as CSV or JSON. Found an error or a better primary source? Corrections with a link to the document are welcome at support@soapformulator.com.