Camellia Oleifera Seed Oil (Youcha Oil)
INCI Camellia Oleifera Seed Oil. Also: Tea seed oil, Tea oil, Oil-tea camellia seed oil.
Calculate a 100 % Camellia Oleifera Seed Oil (Youcha Oil) bar
Published values
| Saponification value | 187–199 mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 193.0 mg KOH/g (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1376 g/g |
| Iodine value | 83–89 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 107 |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | ≤ 1.5 % |
A bar made of 100 % Camellia Oleifera Seed Oil (Youcha 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myristic acid | C14:0 · saturated | 0–0.8 | 0.4 |
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 · saturated | 3.9–14.5 | 9.2 |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 0–0.2 | 0.1 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | 0.3–4.8 | 2.6 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 68–87 | 77.5 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 3.8–14 | 8.9 |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 0–1.4 | 0.7 |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 · saturated | 0–0.5 | 0.3 |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 0–0.7 | 0.4 |
| Behenic acid | C22:0 · saturated | 0–0.1 | 0.1 |
| Erucic acid | C22:1 | 0–0.5 | 0.3 |
Where these numbers come from
The FAO file CXS_210e.pdf itself (https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fworkspace.fao.org%2Fsites%2Fcodex%2FStandards%2FCXS%2B210-1999%2FCXS_210e.pdf) returned a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403) at retrieval and the workspace.fao.org original asks for a Microsoft sign-in, so the Internet Archive capture of 2025-11-27 was read (24 pages, 'Amended in ... 2024' on the cover; page 2 lists the 2024 amendments that added camellia seed oil and the 2025 corrigenda). Page 3 = Section 2.1 definition. Page 6 = Table 1 (Section 3.1, GLC ranges of fatty-acid composition, % of total fatty acids, ND = non detectable, <= 0.05 %). Page 12 = Table 2 of the Appendix 'Other quality and composition factors' (chemical and physical characteristics of CRUDE vegetable oils; the Appendix is supplementary, a product outside it may still conform). Both camellia columns were checked on the rendered pages, since Table 2's text layer interleaves its rows.
Internet Archive capture of 2025-12-14 of the FAO file CXS_210s.pdf (21 pages). Section 2.1: 'El aceite de semilla de camelia (aceite de youcha) se obtiene de las semillas de especies de Camellia cultivadas (C. oleifera, C. oleifera var. meiocarpa, C. chekiangoleosa y C. vietnamensis)'. C. japonica is absent here, whereas the English and French texts name it. The camellia columns of Cuadro 1 (pages 6-7) and Cuadro 2 (page 12) carry the same figures as the English print. The French text (capture of 2025-12-09: https://web.archive.org/web/20251209055025/https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/es/?lnk=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fworkspace.fao.org%2Fsites%2Fcodex%2FStandards%2FCXS%2B210-1999%2FCXS_210f.pdf) defines 'huile de camelia (huile de You cha)' from C. oleifera, C. chekiangoleosa, C. japonica and C. vietnamensis, and its Tableau 2 gives the same saponification, iodine and unsaponifiable figures. Used for the species note only.
PDF (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jos/68/7/68_ess18234/_pdf) read in full; Tables 1, 3 and 4 checked on the rendered pages. Samples: nine refined (RBD) commercial C. oleifera seed oils produced in Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui and Guangdong and bought in Ganzhou in 2017; three RBD C. japonica oils from Japan; five C. sinensis oils. Table 4, C. oleifera, % of fatty acids (mean +/- SD, n = 9): myristic ND, palmitic 8.1 +/- 0.6, palmitoleic 0.1, stearic 1.7 +/- 0.2, oleic 80.5 +/- 1.3, linoleic 8.3 +/- 0.8, alpha-linolenic 0.2 +/- 0.1, arachidic 0.1, gadoleic ND, erucic 0.5 +/- 0.1, lignoceric 0.1, other 0.4 +/- 0.2. Table 3: saponification value 193.7 +/- 0.7 mg/g, iodine value 83.9 +/- 1.1 g/100 g, relative density 0.920 (25 C), refractive index 1.4665 (20 C); Section 2.5 says the IV and SV 'were calculated based on the fatty acid composition'. C. japonica for comparison: oleic 86.6, linoleic 3.0, IV 79.9, SV 192.7. Cross-check only; nothing from this paper is in the record's fields.
Fatty acids from CXS 210 Table 1, column 'Camellia seed oil' (mandatory GLC ranges, % of total fatty acids; 'ND' = non detectable, <= 0.05 %, stored as min 0; ND-only entries omitted): C6:0 ND, C8:0 ND, C10:0 ND, C12:0 ND, C14:0 ND-0.8, C16:0 3.9-14.5, C16:1 ND-0.2, C17:0 ND-0.1, C17:1 ND-0.1, C18:0 0.3-4.8, C18:1 68.0-87.0, C18:2 3.8-14.0, C18:3 ND-1.4, C20:0 ND-0.5, C20:1 ND-0.7, C20:2 ND, C22:0 ND-0.1, C22:1 ND-0.5, C22:2 ND, C24:0 ND, C24:1 ND-0.5. C17:0, C17:1 and C24:1 are omitted because they are outside this schema's key list. sapKohMgPerG, iodineValue and unsaponifiablePercent from Appendix Table 2 (crude oils; supplementary, not mandatory): saponification value 187-199 mg KOH/g oil, iodine value 83-89, unsaponifiable matter <= 15 g/kg (stored as 1.5 %); the same column gives relative density 0.912-0.922 (x = 20 C) and refractive index (ND 40 C) 1.460-1.464. The standard prints no 'typical' values and no melting point, so none are given and meltingPointC is null. Which oil the column describes: Section 2.1 defines 'Camellia seed oil (youcha oil)' as oil from the seeds of cultivated Camellia species (C. oleifera, C. chekiangoleosa, C. japonica and C. vietnamensis), and the French text agrees, but the Spanish text of the same standard lists C. oleifera, C. oleifera var. meiocarpa, C. chekiangoleosa and C. vietnamensis, without C. japonica. So the ranges are not specific to C. oleifera, but they fit it better than C. japonica: Zeng and Endo 2019 (J. Oleo Sci. 68:649) found nine refined commercial C. oleifera oils from China at palmitic 8.1, stearic 1.7, oleic 80.5, linoleic 8.3, alpha-linolenic 0.2 and erucic 0.5 % (each inside the column; only their 0.1 % lignoceric exceeds the Codex 'ND' for C24:0), while their three Japanese C. japonica oils averaged 3.0 % linoleic, below the Codex minimum of 3.8, and the JP XVIII monograph behind this dataset's camellia-seed-oil record (C. japonica) sets the iodine value at 78-83 against Codex 83-89. That paper's saponification (193.7) and iodine (83.9) values were calculated from its own fatty-acid data rather than titrated, so they are not used, though both fall inside the Codex bands. 'Tea seed oil' is also the name for oil from the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, which is a different oil with its own INCI (Camellia Sinensis Seed Oil); Zeng and Endo's five C. sinensis oils averaged 58.4 % oleic and 22.3 % linoleic, well outside this record, so check the botanical name on the supplier's paperwork. The INCI name and CAS number are CosIng's exact, active entry for Camellia Oleifera Seed Oil (substance ID 55217, 'a fixed oil from the seeds of Camellia oleifera, Theaceae'), which gives no EC number. CosIng lists no sodium or potassium salt named for this INCI (Potassium Camelliate is defined from the generic, multi-species 'Camellia Seed Oil', and Sodium Camellia Japonica Seedate from C. japonica), so saponifiedInci is null. China's national standard GB/T 11765-2018 'Oil-tea camellia seed oil' (in force; its revision GB/T 11765-2026 takes effect 2026-11-01) was not used: the official portal, openstd.samr.gov.cn, shows its text only in a copy-protected image viewer.
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.