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Oils

Perilla Seed Oil

Also: Perilla frutescens seed oil, Perilla oil, Egoma oil, Deulkkae oil, Shiso seed oil.

Calculate a 100 % Perilla Seed Oil bar

Published values

Saponification value196.48–198.26 mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator197.4 mg KOH/g (midpoint)
SAP for NaOH0.1407 g/g
Iodine value196.7–213.19 g I₂/100 g
INS (SAP − IV)-8
Melting point
Unsaponifiable matter

A bar made of 100 % Perilla 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 4.43–5.62 (typ. 5.62) 5.6
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 1.86–1.92 (typ. 1.92) 1.9
Oleic acid C18:1 16.92–21.16 (typ. 21.16) 21.2
Linoleic acid C18:2 9.12–14.53 (typ. 11.19) 11.2
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 60.11–64.05 (typ. 60.11) 60.1

Where these numbers come from

Sociedade Brasileira de Ciencia e Tecnologia de Alimentos (Food Science and Technology, Campinas), open access via SciELO BrazilUltrasound-assisted aqueous enzymatic extraction of oil from perilla seeds and determination of its physicochemical properties, fatty acid composition and antioxidant activity (Huizhen Li, Zhijun Zhang, Dongliang He, Yaoyao Xia, Qingye Liu, Xiaojun Li; Food Sci. Technol. Campinas 2017, 37(Suppl. 1):71-77; DOI 10.1590/1678-457X.29116) · document dated 2017-12 · read 2026-09-21

Table 3, 'Physicochemical characteristics and fatty acid composition of perilla oil': three columns (UAAEEO, SEO, CPEO), n=3, mean +/- SD. Refractive index, acid, iodine, saponification and peroxide values, total tocopherol and phenolics, then the five fatty acids with SAFA/MUFA/PUFA totals. PDF read via the journal's SciELO PDF endpoint (?format=pdf&lang=en) and text-extracted.

Every figure here comes from Table 3 of Li et al., Food Science and Technology (Campinas) 37(Suppl. 1):71-77 (2017), which characterised one batch of Chinese perilla seed by three extraction routes side by side: ultrasound-assisted aqueous enzymatic (UAAEE), solvent (SE) and cold press (CPE). Saponification value 196.48 (UAAEE), 198.26 (SE), 197.82 (CPE) mg KOH/g; iodine value 210.654, 213.192 and 196.695 g I2/100 g; acid value 3.058, 1.299, 1.143 mg/g; peroxide 3.2, 4.5, 4.3 meq O2/kg; refractive index 1.479-1.481; all three liquid at room temperature. The min/max here span all three columns; 'typical' is the COLD-PRESSED column throughout, because cold-pressed is what a soapmaker buys and because it is the least favourable of the three for alpha-linolenic content, so a recipe built on it will not be surprised downwards. Cold-pressed fatty acids: palmitic 5.62, stearic 1.92, oleic 21.16, linoleic 11.19, alpha-linolenic 60.11 (total 100.00 %). The paper reports only these five acids, and they sum to 100 %, so nothing is missing: perilla really is essentially a five-acid oil. WHAT MATTERS FOR SOAP: at 60-64 % alpha-linolenic this is among the most unstable fats a soapmaker can put in a pot. The iodine value the same paper measured, 196.7-213.2 g I2/100 g, is higher than linseed's and far above the 70-ish that hobby lore treats as the softness ceiling; expect a soft, slow-tracing bar that goes rancid (DOS) early unless it is a small proportion of the recipe, kept cool and used fresh. The paper's own discussion notes the high polyunsaturated fraction makes perilla oil 'very suitable for the production of liquid soaps and shampoos', which is the honest use for it. The saponification range 196.5-198.3 sits about 2 % above the 192.8 mg KOH/g implied by the cold-pressed profile, well inside measurement noise and the free-acid content (acid value 1.1-3.1 mg/g). Unsaponifiable matter is NOT recorded: section 2.5 of the paper states unsaponifiable matter was determined by ISO methods, but Table 3 never prints the result, so there is no number to transcribe. Melting point not measured (liquid). INCI not verified on CosIng in this session, 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.