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Oils

Kiwi Seed Oil

INCI Actinidia Chinensis Seed Oil. Also: Kiwifruit seed oil, Actinidia chinensis seed oil.

Calculate a 100 % Kiwi Seed Oil bar

The saponification value here is derived, not published. No primary document we could use gives one for Kiwi Seed Oil, so it is calculated from this record's own fatty-acid composition: chain lengths fix the molar mass, which fixes how much hydroxide a gram of fat consumes. That gives 193.0 mg KOH/g, ±3 %.

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 valuenot published
Derived from composition193.0 ± 3 % mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator193.0 mg KOH/g (derived)
SAP for NaOH0.1376 g/g
Iodine value—
INS (SAP − IV)—
Melting point—
Unsaponifiable matter—

A bar made of 100 % Kiwi Seed Oil

Hardness 8 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 92 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 8 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
Palmitic acid C16:0 · saturated 5.9–8.3 (typical 5.9) 5.9
Palmitoleic acid C16:1 0.1–0.8 0.5
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 1.9–3.1 (typical 2.3) 2.3
Oleic acid C18:1 12.79–14 (typical 13) 13.0
Linoleic acid C18:2 14.6–16.6 (typical 15.8) 15.8
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 58.6–63.1 (typical 62.9) 62.9

Where these numbers come from

PlantFAdb, Michigan State University (fatplants.net); Ohlrogge et al. 2018, The Plant Journal 96:1299-1308, based on the SOFA database of the Max Rubner-Institut — PlantFAdb datasets for Actinidia chinensis (plant 11463): #10934, 'Study of lipid fraction of seeds of Actinidia chinensis (Planch) Dilleniacees or kiwi' (1987), SOFA TAB_002707; #10534, 'Determination of fatty acids in Kiwi fruit (Actinidia chinensis)' (1982), SOFA TAB_002706 · document dated 1987 · read 2026-09-24

GLC area-% compositions; #10934 supplies the typical values.

PlantFAdb, Michigan State University (fatplants.net) — PlantFAdb datasets for Actinidia chinensis Planch. (plant 19996): #28606 'Chinese Oil Plants' (1987), #25909 'Oil Plants in Sichuan' (1987), #26518 'Oil Plants in Henan' (1996) · document dated 1987 · read 2026-09-24

Weight-% compositions used for min/max. Datasets #25669 and #25460 on the same page carry unrelated publication titles and are not used.

All figures are PlantFAdb tabulations of seed-oil analyses of Actinidia chinensis (kiwifruit). The 'typical' column is dataset #10934, 'Study of lipid fraction of seeds of Actinidia chinensis (Planch) Dilleniacees or kiwi' (1987; SOFA TAB_002707): 32.0 % oil; palmitic 5.9, stearic 2.3, oleic 13.0, linoleic 15.8, C18:3 62.9 % (sum 99.9). Min/max add #10534, 'Determination of fatty acids in Kiwi fruit (Actinidia chinensis)' (1982; SOFA TAB_002706): palmitoleic 0.8, palmitic 6.1, stearic 3.1, oleic 14.0, linoleic 15.0, C18:3 61.3 %; and three datasets under PlantFAdb plant 19996 (A. chinensis Planch.): #28606 'Chinese Oil Plants' (1987), 35.0 % oil, palmitic 6.4, stearic 2.3, oleic 12.8, linoleic 14.6, alpha-linolenic 62.9, C20:2 0.9 %; #25909 'Oil Plants in Sichuan' (1987), capric 0.5, myristic 0.3, palmitoleic 0.1, palmitic 8.3, stearic 1.9, oleic 13.5, linoleic 16.6, alpha-linolenic 58.6 %; #26518 'Oil Plants in Henan' (1996), palmitic 6.49, stearic 2.37, oleic 12.79, linoleic 14.66, alpha-linolenic 63.1 %. The two older datasets print the triene only as '18:3'; the three Chinese ones identify it as the 9,12,15 isomer, and it is stored as alpha-linolenic. Capric, myristic and C20:2 appear in one dataset each and are not stored. Other PlantFAdb rows filed under Actinidia were not used because the publication titles attached to them belong to other plants (a grape-seed extraction study, a Xanthium seed study, a Prunus pedunculata survey), so their source cannot be identified. The five used datasets agree closely: alpha-linolenic 58.6-63.1, linoleic 14.6-16.6, oleic 12.8-14.0 %. SAPONIFICATION AND IODINE VALUE are null: none of these documents prints either, and no open-access journal analysis of kiwi seed oil could be found (the 2018 Food Chemistry comparison of Chinese kiwifruit seed oils is paywalled); the typical composition implies about 193 mg KOH/g. FOR SOAP: about 60 % alpha-linolenic acid, as unsaturated as linseed oil; it oxidises quickly and belongs in a bar only as a small superfat addition. INCI name and CAS number are CosIng's (no EC number is listed).

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.