Cashew Nut Oil
INCI Anacardium Occidentale Seed Oil. Also: Cashew kernel oil, Cashew nut kernel oil, Anacardium occidentale seed oil.
Calculate a 100 % Cashew Nut Oil bar
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 value | not published |
| Derived from composition | 191.7 ± 3 % mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 191.7 mg KOH/g (derived) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1367 g/g |
| Iodine value | 75.214–79.736 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 114 |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | — |
A bar made of 100 % Cashew Nut 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 · saturated | 8.68–9.85 (typical 8.68) | 8.7 |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 0.2–0.26 (typical 0.2) | 0.2 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | 8.6–10.93 (typical 8.6) | 8.6 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 60.87–65.31 (typical 65.31) | 65.3 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 16.88–17.33 (typical 16.88) | 16.9 |
Where these numbers come from
Table 4, fatty acid composition, time 0 (fresh oil, identical in the 30, 40 and 50 C series).
Table 3 iodine values at six pressing temperatures; fatty acids stated in section 3 (kernels W240 bought in Zhanjiang, China).
Read and not used (fatty-acid table does not sum; see notes).
Synonyms returned include 'Cashew, nutshell liq.', 'cashew nut shell liquid', 'EINECS 232-355-4'; cited only for the CAS caution in notes.
The fixed oil of the cashew KERNEL, not cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), which is a different material. Typicals: Leal et al. 2025 (J. Food Sci. 90:e70176), Table 4, fresh cold-pressed cashew nut oil (hydraulic press, 30 C; kernels from north-eastern Brazil), sample T0: C16:0 8.68, C16:1 0.20, C17:1 0.05, C18:0 8.60, C18:1 n-9 65.31, C18:2 n-6 16.88, 'C20:4 n-6' 0.11, unidentified 0.16; SFA 17.29, MUFA 65.57, PUFA 16.98 %. Min/max add Liu, Li, Xia & Lin 2023 (Foods 12:693), whose text gives the fatty acids of a hot-pressed Chinese sample as palmitic 9.85, palmitoleic 0.26, stearic 10.93, oleic 60.87, linoleic 17.33 and 'arachidonic acid' 0.76 %. Both papers label a small C20 peak as arachidonic acid (C20:4), which does not occur in seed oils; in Liu et al. its size matches the arachidic acid (C20:0) reported for cashew elsewhere, so it is most likely a labelling slip, but relabelling another author's peak is not done here and it is left out (the keyed acids still sum to about 99.7 %). C17:1 has no key. Iodine value 75.214-79.736 g/100 g: Liu et al. Table 3, the same kernels pressed at 100-200 C (100 C 78.196, 120 C 79.550, 140 C 79.736, 160 C 76.546, 180 C 78.186, 200 C 75.214). NO SAPONIFICATION VALUE is printed in either paper, so it is null and the build derives one from the profile (all C16-C18). Read and not used: Baidoo et al. 2024 (Heliyon 10:e32421) print a Ghanaian cashew kernel oil profile whose percentages sum to about 118 % (SFA 16.67 + MUFA 71.13 + PUFA 30.61), so it cannot be transcribed; their iodine values (71.62-76.89) are close to Liu's. CAS CAUTION: 8007-24-7 is the number CosIng gives for the INCI name Anacardium Occidentale Seed Oil and is stored because that is this field's definition, but the same number is registered in PubChem as 'Cashew, nutshell liq.' (cashew nut shell liquid, EINECS 232-355-4), a different substance; a safety assessor should not read it as identifying the kernel oil.
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.