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Oils

Beech Nut Oil

Also: Beechnut oil, European beech seed oil, Fagus sylvatica seed oil.

Calculate a 100 % Beech Nut Oil bar

The saponification value here is derived, not published. No primary document we could use gives one for Beech Nut Oil, so it is calculated from this record's own fatty-acid composition: chain lengths fix the molar mass, which fixes how much hydroxide a gram of fat consumes. That gives 190.5 mg KOH/g, ±3 %.

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 valuenot published
Derived from composition190.5 ± 3 % mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator190.5 mg KOH/g (derived)
SAP for NaOH0.1358 g/g
Iodine value—
INS (SAP − IV)—
Melting point—
Unsaponifiable matter—

A bar made of 100 % Beech Nut Oil

Hardness 10 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 81 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 10 below 16–48

Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.

Fatty-acid profile

Fatty acidPublished range, %Used
Myristic acid C14:0 · saturated 0.2 0.2
Palmitic acid C16:0 · saturated 7.3 7.3
Palmitoleic acid C16:1 0.2 0.2
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 2.8 2.8
Oleic acid C18:1 35 35.0
Linoleic acid C18:2 40.5 40.5
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 5.2 5.2
Arachidic acid C20:0 · saturated 0.6 0.6
Gadoleic acid C20:1 7.7 7.7

Where these numbers come from

MDPI (Nutraceuticals), open access (CC BY 4.0); read in the Internet Archive capture of the publisher page — Obranovic M., Kraljic K., Skevin D., Balbino S., Tomljanovic K. Chemical Profile of Cold-Pressed Beech Nut (Fagus sylvatica L.) Oil. Nutraceuticals 2024, 4(1):94-103 (doi 10.3390/nutraceuticals4010007) · document dated 2024-02-21 · read 2026-09-24

Table 1 (nut composition), Table 2 (oil quality), Table 3 (fatty acid profile). Canonical page https://www.mdpi.com/1661-3821/4/1/7 returned HTTP 403 to automated requests.

PlantFAdb, Michigan State University (fatplants.net), based on the SOFA database of the Max Rubner-Institut; Ohlrogge J. et al. (2018) PlantFAdb, The Plant Journal 96:1299-1308 — PlantFAdb datasets for Fagus sylvatica (plant 11533) and Fagus orientalis (plant 11883) · read 2026-09-24

Read and not used (see notes).

Cold-pressed oil of European beech nuts (Fagus sylvatica). Figures: Obranovic, Kraljic, Skevin, Balbino and Tomljanovic 2024 (Nutraceuticals 4:94-103), Table 3 'Fatty acid profile of Fagus sylvatica L. nut oil', % : myristic (C14:0) 0.2, palmitic (C16:0) 7.3, margaric (C17:0) 0.1, stearic (C18:0) 2.8, arachidic (C20:0) 0.6, heneicosylic (C21:0) 0.3, palmitoleic (C16:1) 0.2, oleic (C18:1 n-9) 35.0, gondoic (C20:1 n-9) 7.7, linoleic (C18:2 n-6) 40.5, alpha-linolenic (C18:3) 5.2; SFA 11.4, MUFA 42.9, PUFA 45.7. C17:0 and C21:0 have no key. One oil: nuts gathered in early autumn in Nature Park Zumberak (north-west Croatia), dried at 60 C to below 10 % moisture, pressed in a laboratory screw press (Komet CA/53) below 50 C and filtered; the nuts held 25.35 % water, 13.19 % oil and 19.40 % protein (Table 1). Table 2: free fatty acids 1.74 %, peroxide value 1.86 meq O2/kg. The gondoic acid (C20:1, about 8 %) is unusual among nut oils. NO SAPONIFICATION OR IODINE VALUE is published, so both are null; the build derives the saponification value from the profile. Read and not used: PlantFAdb's only complete-looking Fagus sylvatica entry (#20765, from a 1969 handbook) prints 16:0 12.0, 18:3 2.0, 18:2 38.0, 18:1 57.0 %, which sums to 109 % and cannot be transcribed (a 1977 Russian manual gives the same figures, with 'saturated acids 12.0', for Fagus orientalis); a Turkish analysis of the related Fagus orientalis (8.8 / 3.2 / 30.4 / 48.9 / 6.7 % for 16:0 / 18:0 / 18:1 / 18:2 / 20:1) is a different species. The publisher's own page (mdpi.com) refused automated access, so the article was read in the Internet Archive's capture of that page. CosIng has no INCI name for beech seed or nut oil, so inci is 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.