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Fatty acids

Oleic Acid

INCI Oleic Acid. Saponified with NaOH it is listed as Sodium Oleate, with KOH as Potassium Oleate. Also: cis-9-Octadecenoic acid, C18:1 fatty acid, Oleic acid 70-75% (vegetable), Oleic acid NF.

Calculate a 100 % Oleic Acid bar

Published values

Saponification value197–207 mg KOH/g (typ. 197)
Used by the calculator197.0 mg KOH/g (typical)
SAP for NaOH0.1404 g/g
Iodine value88–96 g I₂/100 g (typ. 90)
INS (SAP − IV)107
Melting point
Unsaponifiable matter0.3 %

A bar made of 100 % Oleic Acid

Hardness 3 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 88 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 3 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 0.2 0.2
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 2.4 2.4
Oleic acid C18:1 ≥ 70 88.0

Where these numbers come from

Wilmar International Ltd (oleochemicals producer)Wilmar Oleochemical and Biofuel Division product brochure - Fractionated Fatty Acids table (WILFARIN OA-7075 / OA-7070 Oleic Acid Vegetable Based) · read 2026-09-20

Brochure PDF (uploaded 2012), fractionated fatty acids table columns OA-7075 and OA-7070: AV 195-205, SAP 197-207, IV 90 min / 88-96, titre 9 / 10 C max. Text extracted with pdftotext; the extracted table rows are offset by one line, and the mapping was validated against Wilmar's MA-1498 and PA-1698 product pages, which print the same numbers.

Synthomer (Adhesive Technologies)Technical Data Sheet PAMOLYN 100 Oleic Acid (Revision 24.03.2025) · document dated 2025-03-24 · read 2026-09-20

Typical-value table: saponification number 197 mg KOH/g (ASTM D464), iodine number 90 cg I/g (Wijs), titer 11 C, unsaponifiables 0.3 %, oleic 88 %, stearic 2.4 %, palmitic 0.2 %, conjugated acids 1.3 %. Text extracted with pdftotext.

Emery OleochemicalsEMERSOL Oleic Acids - EMERSOL 213 NF / 221 NF specification table · read 2026-09-20

Acid value 199-204 mg KOH/g, iodine value 88-95, titer 5 C max, C18 68-72 % (213 NF) / 68-73 % (221 NF).

Commercial oleic acid ranges from ~70 % C18:1 (tallow- or palm-derived) to ~88-90 % (high-purity/tall-oil). Ranges (min/max) come from Wilmar's producer brochure for WILFARIN OA-7070 (Oleic Acid Vegetable Based, C18:1 70 %) and OA-7075 (C18:1 75 %): acid value 195-205 mg KOH/g, saponification value 197-207 mg KOH/g, iodine value 88-96 g/100 g (OA-7070; OA-7075: 90 min), titre 10 C max (OA-7070) / 9 C max (OA-7075). 'Typical' values and the fatty-acid breakdown come from Synthomer's PAMOLYN 100 Oleic Acid TDS (rev. 24.03.2025, tall-oil derived): saponification number 197 mg KOH/g, iodine number 90 cg I/g, titer 11 C, unsaponifiables 0.3 %, oleic acid (C18:1) 88 %, stearic (C18:0) 2.4 %, palmitic (C16:0) 0.2 %, conjugated acids incl. C18:2 linoleic 1.3 % (not mapped to 'linoleic' because it is a conjugated-acid total). Emery's EMERSOL 213 NF / 221 NF (tallow oleic acid) give acid value 199-204, iodine value 88-95, titer 5 C max, C18 68-73 % (additional source, no SAP). Free fatty acid: SAP is essentially the acid value; use directly for lye calculation. The oleic 'min 70' is the OA-7070 product description (C18:1 70 %), which sits in the brochure composition table whose text-extracted rows are offset; treat as the nominal grade rather than a verified GC limit. INCI and salt names are the standard CosIng entries, not re-verified on CosIng in this session.

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.