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Oils

Camelina Oil

Also: Camelina sativa seed oil, False flax oil, Gold-of-pleasure oil, Leindotter oil, Wild flax oil, Dodder oil.

Calculate a 100 % Camelina Oil bar

Published values

Saponification value187.8 mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator187.8 mg KOH/g (typical)
SAP for NaOH0.1339 g/g
Iodine value104.7 g I₂/100 g
INS (SAP − IV)83
Melting point
Unsaponifiable matter

A bar made of 100 % Camelina Oil

Hardness 9 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 70 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 9 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 0.04–0.06 (typ. 0.05) 0.1
Palmitic acid C16:0 · saturated 5.35–6.43 (typ. 6.43) 6.4
Palmitoleic acid C16:1 0.09–0.11 (typ. 0.1) 0.1
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 2.48–2.76 (typ. 2.57) 2.6
Oleic acid C18:1 13.4–17.4 (typ. 17.4) 17.4
Linoleic acid C18:2 13.5–16.9 (typ. 16.9) 16.9
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 34.9–39.7 (typ. 35.2) 35.2
Arachidic acid C20:0 · saturated 1.18–1.43 (typ. 1.24) 1.2
Gadoleic acid C20:1 14.9–16.12 (typ. 14.9) 14.9
Erucic acid C22:1 1.62–3.18 (typ. 1.62) 1.6

Where these numbers come from

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology (Food Technology and Biotechnology), open accessPhysico-Chemical Properties, Composition and Oxidative Stability of Camelina sativa Oil (Helena Abramovic, Veronika Abram; Food Technol. Biotechnol. 2005, 43(1):63-70; UDC 633.85:547.396, ISSN 1330-9862, FTB-1329) · document dated 2005 · read 2026-09-21

Table 2 physical and chemical characteristics (free fatty acid content, iodine value, saponification number, density at five temperatures, refractive index); Table 3 fatty acid content, 'this study' column plus Budin, Eidhin and Zubr comparison columns. Publisher's own PDF.

MDPI (Foods), open-access copy via PubMed CentralComparative Evaluation of Camelina Seed Oils Obtained by Cold-Pressing and Solvent Extraction (Rakita S., Spasevski N., Savic I., Savic Gajic I., Lazarevic J., Dragojlovic D., Duragic O.; Foods 2024, 13(22):3605; DOI 10.3390/foods13223605) · document dated 2024 · read 2026-09-21

Table 4 fatty-acid composition of two Serbian cultivars by two extraction methods; Table 5 tocopherols (gamma-tocopherol 184-547 mg/kg). Its Table 1 'saponification number' column (28-59 mg KOH/g) is not usable and is not transcribed here.

Saponification value 187.8 +/- 0.1 mg KOH/g and iodine value 104.7 +/- 0.3 g I2/100 g are Table 2 of Abramovic & Abram, Food Technology and Biotechnology 43(1):63-70 (2005), measured by AOAC 920.160 and 920.185 on a single pressed oil from Camelina sativa grown near Prevalje, Slovenia, 2002 (same table: free fatty acids 2.35 %, density 0.9207 g/cm3 at 20 C, refractive index 1.4756 at 25 C). The 'typical' fatty acids are that paper's Table 3 'this study' column: palmitic 6.43, stearic 2.57, oleic 17.40, linoleic 16.90, alpha-linolenic 35.20, arachidic 1.24, gondoic (C20:1) 14.90, eicosadienoic (C20:2) 2.12, eicosatrienoic (C20:3) 1.61, erucic 1.62 - ten acids totalling 99.99 %. The printed table interleaves four source columns and the PDF extraction scrambles the rows, so the assignment was pinned against the paper's own stated totals (10.3 % saturated, 55.8 % polyunsaturated, 16.9 % linoleic, 35.2 % alpha-linolenic, 14.9 % gondoic, 1.6 % erucic); all six agree exactly. C20:2 and C20:3 have no key in this schema, which is why the profile here sums to 96.4 % rather than 100 - the missing 3.7 % is those two acids, not an omission. Min/max additionally span Foods 13(22):3605 (2024) Table 4, two Serbian cultivars (NS Zlatka, NS Slatka) cold-pressed and hexane-extracted: C16:0 5.35-5.75, C18:0 2.48-2.76, C18:1 13.40-13.94, C18:2 15.83-16.72, C18:3n3 36.68-39.25, C20:0 1.18-1.43, C20:1 15.17-16.12, C22:1 2.91-3.18, C14:0 0.04-0.06, C16:1 0.09-0.11; and the five-cultivar ranges from Zubr quoted in the FTB text (alpha-linolenic 34.9-39.7, oleic 14.0-16.9, linoleic 13.5-16.5, gondoic 15.1-15.8, erucic 2.6-3.0). The Foods 2024 paper also prints a 'saponification number' of 28.06-58.90 mg KOH/g, which is impossible for a triglyceride oil and roughly a quarter of every other published figure, so it is disregarded; that paper measured no iodine value. WHAT MATTERS FOR SOAP: camelina is the odd one among the high-linolenic oils. At 35-40 % alpha-linolenic it should be as fragile as linseed, yet it is not - its Rancimat induction period sits between rapeseed and linseed, and the FTB authors attribute that to roughly 800-1500 mg/kg of natural tocopherols (mostly gamma) plus the unusual 15 % of gondoic acid (C20:1), a long monounsaturated chain that most seed oils do not carry at all. The measured iodine value, 104.7, is barely half perilla's and close to soybean's, because a third of the oil is monounsaturated C18:1/C20:1 rather than polyunsaturated. Expect a soft bar with better keeping than the linolenic figure alone would suggest, but still treat it as a minority oil. Erucic acid is present at 1.6-3.2 %, below the 5 % food limit and irrelevant for soap, but it is why the long-chain end of the profile drags the saponification value down. The published 187.8 agrees with the 188.8 implied by the recorded profile to within 0.5 %. Unsaponifiable matter and melting point were not measured in either paper (null). 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.