Meadowfoam Seed Oil
INCI Limnanthes Alba Seed Oil. CAS 153065-40-8; EC 310-127-6, as CosIng gives them. Also: Limnanthes alba seed oil, Meadowfoam oil, White meadowfoam seed oil.
Calculate a 100 % Meadowfoam 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 36 Codex oils where both fields come from the same standard, the method's median error is 0.84 % and its 90th percentile 2.44 %, and it runs slightly high, by 0.55 % on average. 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 | 169.6 ± 3 % mg KOH/g |
| Used by the calculator | 169.6 mg KOH/g (derived) |
| SAP for NaOH | 0.1209 g/g |
| Iodine value | 94 g I₂/100 g |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 76 |
| Melting point | — |
| Unsaponifiable matter | — |
Soapmaking books print about 0.120 g NaOH per g (median of 2 books), which agrees with ours to within 2 %.
A bar made of 100 % Meadowfoam Seed Oil
Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.
How much lye
| Oil | NaOH | KOH |
|---|---|---|
| 500 g | 57.4 g | 80.5 g |
| 1 kg | 114.8 g | 161.1 g |
| 1 lb (454 g) | 52.1 g | 73.1 g |
| 2 lb (907 g) | 104.2 g | 146.1 g |
For this oil alone at 5 % superfat, with pure sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or pure potassium hydroxide (KOH); in brackets, across the published range of its saponification value. KOH is usually sold at 90 %: divide by 0.9. For a whole recipe, open the calculator.
Fatty-acid profile
Saturated : unsaturated 1 : 99
| Fatty acid | Published range, % | Used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lauric acid | C12:0 · saturated | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Myristic acid | C14:0 · saturated | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 · saturated | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 · saturated | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 1–2 (typical 1) | 1.0 |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 0.3–0.5 (typical 0.3) | 0.3 |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 · saturated | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 61–66.6 (typical 61) | 61.0 |
| Erucic acid | C22:1 | 10–16 (typical 15) | 15.0 |
| Docosadienoic acid | C22:2 | 15.7–20 (typical 20) | 20.0 |
Where these numbers come from
GLC area-% fatty-acid composition, oil content 27.0 wt-%, refractive index nD40 1.47, iodine value 94.0.
Seed-oil fatty-acid values used for the min/max spreads of 18:1, 18:2, 20:1, 22:1 and for the 22:2 range quoted in notes.
Meadowfoam oil is over 95 % C20-C22 fatty acids with unusual delta-5 unsaturation. Mapping caveats: the 'gadoleic' key holds total C20:1, which in meadowfoam is almost entirely cis-5-eicosenoic acid (not the cis-11 gadoleic isomer); the 'erucic' key holds total C22:1, which is mostly cis-13-docosenoic (erucic) acid with a few percent cis-5-docosenoic acid; the third major acid, cis-5,cis-13-docosadienoic acid (C22:2, 15.7-20.0 % across the datasets below), is recorded under the 'docosadienoic' key, which was added to calc-core for this oil; before it existed a profile built from the available keys summed to only about 80 % and no saponification value could be derived at all. All fatty-acid data are from PlantFAdb (fatplants.net; Ohlrogge J. et al. 2018, PlantFAdb, The Plant Journal 96:1299-1308), which tabulates values from the underlying publications. PRIMARY: PlantFAdb plant 16409 (Limnanthes alba, oil content 27.0 wt-%), datasets #14477 and #14478 from 'Search for new industrial oils. VIII. The genus Limnanthes' (1964; SOFA TAB_013689 / TAB_013700), GLC area-%: 12:0 0.2, 14:0 0.1, 16:0 0.2, 16:1 0.2, 18:0 0.1, 18:1 1.0, 18:2 0.3, 18:3 0.3, 20:0 0.7, 20:1 (cis-5) 61.0, 22:1 15.0, 22:2 (cis-5,13) 20.0, 22:3 0.1; the dataset also records refractive index nD40 1.47 and IODINE VALUE 94.0, which is the only iodine value in this record. The 'typical' values are that 1964 dataset. ADDITIONAL: PlantFAdb plant 13020 datasets, seed oil: #11221 (1987, 'Meadowfoam: new source of long-chain fatty acids') 18:1 2.0, 18:2 0.5, 20:1 cis-5 62.5, 22:1 cis-5 2.5, 22:1 cis-13 12.0, 22:2 18.0; #17930/#17931 (1990, 'The structure of the triacylglycerols of meadowfoam oil') 20:1 cis-5 66.6, 22:1 cis-13 16.0; #10282 (2000, urea-based fractionation) 20:1 62.8, 22:1 cis-13 12.3, 22:2 15.7; #12639 (1990, 'Vulcanized meadowfoam oil') 20:1 64.0, 22:1 cis-13 10.0, 22:2 19.0. These supply the min/max spreads (20:1 61.0-66.6, 22:1 10.0-16.0, 18:1 1.0-2.0, 18:2 0.3-0.5). SAPONIFICATION VALUE IS NULL: no allowed document printing a measured SAP could be opened in this session (the Elementis 'Fancor Meadowfoam Seed Oil' TDS URL redirected to a product-finder page, the Natural Plant Products site reset the connection, the Journal of Spectroscopy 2020 paper returned HTTP 403 at Wiley/Hindawi, and the Frontiers 2026 cold-pressed-oil review has no meadowfoam row). Because the acids are C20-C22, the SAP is necessarily well below that of C18 oils, but no figure is asserted here. Unsaponifiable matter and melting point were likewise not found in an allowed source (liquid oil). INCI name from CosIng.
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