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Oils

Kukui Nut Oil

Also: Candlenut oil, Lumbang oil, Aleurites moluccanus seed oil, Aleurites moluccana seed oil, Aleurites triloba oil.

Calculate a 100 % Kukui Nut Oil bar

Published values

Saponification value191.3–212.98 mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator202.1 mg KOH/g (midpoint)
SAP for NaOH0.1441 g/g
Iodine value162 g I₂/100 g
INS (SAP − IV)40
Melting point
Unsaponifiable matter0.38 %

A bar made of 100 % Kukui Nut Oil

Hardness 7 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 84 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 7 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 2.1 2.1
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 4.7 4.7
Oleic acid C18:1 17 17.0
Linoleic acid C18:2 61.6 61.6
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 5.2 5.2

Where these numbers come from

Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science (IUPUI Open Journals)Riebsomer J.L., Foote N. The Chemical Composition of the Fatty Oil from Kukui Nuts. Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci., pp. 116-119 · read 2026-09-20

Full-text PDF (text layer extracted). Table I = physical and chemical characteristics (SAP 191.3, IV 162 Hanus, unsaponifiable 0.38 %); unsaturated- and saturated-acid tables give oleic/linoleic/linolenic and palmitic/stearic as % acid in oil and % glyceride.

CHEMICA: Jurnal Teknik Kimia (Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)Shintawati S., Widodo Y.R. Yield and Physicochemical Properties of Candlenut Oil by Microwave Assisted Extraction. CHEMICA 2022, 9(1), 39-46 (doi 10.26555/chemica.v9i1.22228) · document dated 2022-04 · read 2026-09-20

Abstract page and full-text PDF (article/view/22228/pdf_79): saponification number 198.8093 (solvent) and 212.9764 (MAE) mg KOH/g, RI, density, FFA; Indonesian candlenuts.

Primary source is the historical characterisation by Riebsomer & Foote (DePauw University), Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, pp. 116-119 (year not printed on the fetched pages; references cited go up to 1934), of expressed oil from Hawaiian kukui nuts (Aleurites moluccana, nuts supplied from Wailuku, Maui). Table I: specific gravity (20/4) 0.922; refractive index (Abbe 20 C) 1.4785; iodine number (Hanus) 162; saponification value 191.3; acetyl value 3.2; acid value 17.4; unsaponifiable matter 0.38 %; unsaturated acids 83.8 % and saturated acids 6.8 % (oil basis, corrected). Fatty acids were partitioned by the lead-salt/ether method plus thiocyanogen-iodine number (1930s methods, so the oleic/linoleic/linolenic split is dated): as '% acid in oil' oleic 17.0, linoleic 61.6, linolenic 5.2, palmitic 2.1, stearic 4.7 (sum 90.6 % acid basis; as '% glyceride' 17.8/64.1/5.4/2.2/4.9). These printed '% acid in oil' values are what is stored above as 'typical'; they are slightly lower than a strict % of total fatty acids (which would require dividing by 0.906) and were not recomputed. The same paper quotes West & Montes (Philippine J. Sci. 18:619-635, 1921) for Philippine oil: saponification number 214, iodine number 140, linolenic 6.5 %, linoleic 33.4 %, oleic 56.9 %, solid acids 2.8 % (second-hand, context only). The upper SAP bound 212.98 comes from the additional modern source Shintawati & Widodo 2022 (CHEMICA: Jurnal Teknik Kimia 9(1):39-46; candlenuts from Pringsewu Regency, Lampung, Indonesia): saponification number 198.8093 mg KOH/g for solvent (ethanol) extraction and 212.9764 mg KOH/g for microwave-assisted extraction, refractive index 1.477-1.478, density 0.841-0.893 (solvent) / 0.851-0.867 (MAE) g/mL, free fatty acid 2.8085 % (MAE); that paper reports no iodine value and no fatty-acid profile. A 2022 rat-study paper (Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome 14:80, PMC9178887) prints a GC-MS ester profile that is not internally plausible (e.g. 'methyl arachidate' 41-48 %) and was not used. No document opened gives a melting point (liquid drying oil). No range for palmitoleic, arachidic etc. is available from the sources opened. INCI not verified on CosIng or a producer TDS, so left 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.