Caprylic Acid
INCI Caprylic Acid. Also: Octanoic acid, C8:0 fatty acid, Caprylic acid 99%, n-Octylic acid.
Published values
| Saponification value | 384–391 mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 387.5 mg KOH/g (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.2762 g/g |
| Iodine value | ≤ 0.5 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 387 |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | — |
A bar made of 100 % Caprylic Acid
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caproic acid | C6:0 · saturated | ≤ 1 | 1.0 |
| Caprylic acid | C8:0 · saturated | ≥ 99 | 99.0 |
| Capric acid | C10:0 · saturated | ≤ 1 | 1.0 |
Where these numbers come from
Specification table on the product page: acid value 383-390, saponification value 384-391 mg KOH/g, iodine value 0.5 max, titre 15-18 C, colour 0.5/5 max (Lov R/Y); composition C6 1 max, C8 99 min, C10 1 max, others 0.5 max; product form liquid.
Brochure PDF (uploaded 2012), fractionated fatty acids table: AV 383-390, SAP 384-391, IV 0.5 max, titre 15-18 C, colour 0.5/5 max, C6 1 max, C8 99 min, C10 1 max. Text extracted with pdftotext -layout; the extracted rows are shifted one line against their labels, and the column was checked against the product page.
Producer specification for Wilmar WILFARIN CA-0899 (Caprylic Acid 99%, from the splitting of palm and palm-kernel oil): acid value 383-390 mg KOH/g, saponification value 384-391 mg KOH/g, iodine value 0.5 max (% I2 absorbed = g/100 g), titre 15-18 C, colour 0.5/5 max (Lovibond R/Y), composition C6 1 % max, C8 99 % min, C10 1 % max, others 0.5 % max; supplied liquid. This is a free fatty acid, so it neutralises rather than saponifies and takes one KOH per molecule, not three: 56106 / 144.21 = 389.1 mg KOH/g for the pure acid, which sits inside the published 384-391 band and agrees with it to 0.4 %. Use the published value directly for lye calculation - running it through a triglyceride assumption would treble it and is the classic way to burn a batch. Titre 15-18 C is a solidification point rather than a melting point, so meltingPointC is null. Wilmar's oleochemical brochure carries the same limits for CA-0899 (additional source); its text-extracted table rows are offset by one line, so the mapping was fixed against the product page, which prints the same five numbers in order. At 389 mg KOH/g this is the most lye-hungry fat in the dataset - about 1.5 times coconut oil - and the soap it makes is extremely soluble, so at any real percentage it gives a soft, fast-dissolving, harshly stripping bar; in practice C8 is wanted only as the couple of percent that rides along in coconut and palm-kernel oil. INCI is the standard entry and was not re-verified on CosIng in this session; the sodium and potassium salt names were not established from an allowed document, so saponifiedInci 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.