Echium Seed Oil
INCI Echium Plantagineum Seed Oil. Also: Echium plantagineum seed oil, Refined echium oil, Purple viper's bugloss seed oil, Paterson's curse seed oil.
Calculate a 100 % Echium Seed 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 | 192.8 ± 3 % mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 192.8 mg KOH/g (derived) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1374 g/g |
| Iodine value | — |
| INS (SAP − IV) | — |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | ≤ 2 % |
A bar made of 100 % Echium Seed 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 | 6.8–7.25 (typical 6.85) | 6.9 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | 3.4–3.9 (typical 3.9) | 3.9 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 14.47–15.41 (typical 15.41) | 15.4 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 14.43–16.32 (typical 14.43) | 14.4 |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 29.32–33.03 (typical 33.03) | 33.0 |
| γ-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-6 | 10.41–11.2 (typical 10.41) | 10.4 |
| Stearidonic acid | C18:4 n-3 | 12.78–13.6 (typical 13.49) | 13.5 |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 · saturated | 0.89 | 0.9 |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 0.43 | 0.4 |
| Behenic acid | C22:0 · saturated | 0.21 | 0.2 |
Where these numbers come from
Table 1, fatty acid composition of the echium oil (De Wit Specialty Oils, The Netherlands) before encapsulation.
Table 1, main fatty acid composition (% of total fatty acids) of the fat sources, column 'EO'.
Materials section: fatty acid composition of the De Wit echium seed oil used.
Stearidonic acid minimum and unsaponifiable maximum.
STEARIDONIC (C18:4 n-3) and GAMMA-LINOLENIC (C18:3 n-6) acids are stored under their own keys, separately from alpha-linolenic acid. Typicals: Zahran et al. 2023 (ACS Omega 8:28249), Table 1 'Fatty Acid Composition of EO', GC area %, echium oil supplied by De Wit Specialty Oils (Netherlands): palmitic 6.85 +/- 0.23, stearic 3.90 +/- 0.02, oleic (cis n-9) 15.41 +/- 0.07, elaidic (trans 18:1) 0.71 +/- 0.01, linoleic 14.43 +/- 0.06, alpha-linolenic 33.03 +/- 0.15, gamma-linolenic 10.41 +/- 0.05, stearidonic 13.49 +/- 0.11, arachidic 0.89 +/- 0.06, gondoic (20:1) 0.43 +/- 0.01, behenic 0.21 +/- 0.01, others 0.27; SFA 11.84, UFA 87.89 %. Elaidic acid (0.71 %, trans) has no key and is not added to oleic. The min/max merge two further measurements of commercial echium oil: Villora et al. 2025 (Foods 15:18, Table 1, % of total fatty acids, 'EO' column): 16:0 7.25, 18:0 3.79, 18:1 n-9 14.47, 18:1 n-7 1.08 (no key), 18:2 n-6 16.32, 18:3 n-6 11.08, 18:3 n-3 29.32, 18:4 n-3 12.78; and Comunian et al. 2019 (J. Food Sci. Technol. 56:1155), which states the composition of the De Wit echium oil it used as palmitic 6.8, stearic 3.4, oleic 14.9, linoleic 15.3, alpha-linolenic 31.3, gamma-linolenic 11.2, stearidonic 13.6 %. EU specification for refined echium oil (Commission Decision 2008/558/EC, Annex I): stearidonic acid not less than 10 % w/w of total fatty acids, trans fatty acids not more than 2 %, acid value not more than 0.6 mg KOH/g, peroxide value not more than 5 meq O2/kg, unsaponifiable content not more than 2 % (stored), pyrrolizidine alkaloids not detectable (limit 4 ug/kg). NO SAPONIFICATION OR IODINE VALUE is printed in any document opened (the three papers and the EU decision), so both are null; the build derives the saponification value from the profile, which is all C16-C20. Read and not used: Segre, Bisinotto & Castro 2026 (Lipids 61:417) report 13.37 % palmitic and 9.67 % stearic for an echium oil from the same supplier, while their soybean control in the same table reads 19.92 % palmitic, outside Codex's 8.0-13.5 for soya bean 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.