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Oils

Tomato Seed Oil

INCI Solanum Lycopersicum Seed Oil. Also: Solanum lycopersicum seed oil, Lycopersicon esculentum seed oil.

Calculate a 100 % Tomato Seed Oil bar

The saponification value here is derived, not published. No primary document we could use gives one for Tomato 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 193.3 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 composition193.3 ± 3 % mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator193.3 mg KOH/g (derived)
SAP for NaOH0.1378 g/g
Iodine value128.59 g I₂/100 g
INS (SAP − IV)65
Melting point—
Unsaponifiable matter2.1 %

A bar made of 100 % Tomato Seed Oil

Hardness 20 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 81 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 20 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 12.43–16.81 14.6
Palmitoleic acid C16:1 0.07–0.09 0.1
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 3.59–7.34 5.5
Oleic acid C18:1 17.7–27.16 22.4
Linoleic acid C18:2 48.69–64.63 56.7
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 1.39–2.44 1.9
Arachidic acid C20:0 · saturated 0.13–0.17 0.2

Where these numbers come from

MDPI (Foods), open-access copy via PubMed Central — Szabo K., Dulf F.V., Teleky B.-E., Eleni P., Boukouvalas C., Krokida M., Kapsalis N., Rusu A.V., Socol C.T., Vodnar D.C. Evaluation of the Bioactive Compounds Found in Tomato Seed Oil and Tomato Peels Influenced by Industrial Heat Treatments. Foods 2021, 10(1), 110 (doi 10.3390/foods10010110) · document dated 2021-01-07 · read 2026-09-24

Table 4 fatty-acid composition of cold-break and hot-break tomato seed oils. Table 2 (iodine value, density) is rejected, see notes.

MDPI (Foods), open-access copy via PubMed Central — Li Y., Yuan F., Wu Y., Zhang Y., Gao B., Yu L. Triacylglycerols and Fatty Acid Compositions of Cucumber, Tomato, Pumpkin, and Carrot Seed Oils by UPC2-QTOF-MS. Foods 2020, 9(8), 970 (doi 10.3390/foods9080970) · document dated 2020-07-22 · read 2026-09-24

Table 2, tomato column (four identified acids, normalised).

Universidade Federal de Lavras (Ciencia e Agrotecnologia), open access via SciELO Brazil — Kobori C.N., Jorge N. Caracterizacao dos oleos de algumas sementes de frutas como aproveitamento de residuos industriais. Cienc. Agrotec., Lavras, 2005, 29(5), 1008-1014 (doi 10.1590/S1413-70542005000500014) · document dated 2005 · read 2026-09-24

Running text of the results (the tables are images): tomato seed oil iodine value 128.59, unsaponifiable matter 2.1 %; its saponification value 172.86 is not used.

Fatty acids span three analyses, each read directly. Szabo et al. 2021 (Foods 10(1):110): seed oil from industrial tomato pomace (KYKNOS cannery, Greece), cold-break and hot-break lines, GC-MS, Table 4: palmitic 14.42/12.43, C16:1 n-9 0.07/0.09, stearic 3.95/3.59, oleic 17.88/17.33 plus cis-vaccenic (C18:1 n-7) 0.31/0.37, linoleic 61.73/64.63, alpha-linolenic 1.5/1.39, arachidic 0.13/0.17 % (each line 100 %). Niu et al. 2024 (Foods 13(11):1682): screw-pressed oil from unroasted seed of cultivar Xinfan 85 (Xinjiang, China), Table 1: palmitic 13.26, stearic 6.11, oleic 22.61, linoleic 55.59, linolenic 2.44 %. Li et al. 2020 (Foods 9(8):970): a commercial cold-pressed tomato seed oil (Botanic Innovations, USA), four acids normalised to 100: palmitic 16.81, stearic 7.34, oleic 27.16, linoleic 48.69 %. Stored as min/max across the four oils: palmitic 12.43-16.81, C16:1 0.07-0.09, stearic 3.59-7.34, oleic (total C18:1) 17.70-27.16, linoleic 48.69-64.63, linolenic 1.39-2.44, arachidic 0.13-0.17 %. The C16:1 reported is the n-9 isomer (7-hexadecenoic), filed under the schema's single C16:1 key. No 'typical' is given because the oils differ systematically (the US commercial oil is the most oleic). IODINE VALUE AND UNSAPONIFIABLE MATTER: Kobori and Jorge 2005 (Cienc. Agrotec. 29(5):1008-1014), crude oil Soxhlet-extracted (petroleum ether) from the tomato residue of an industrial processor (Predilecta, Matao-SP, Brazil): iodine value 128.59 g I2/100 g, unsaponifiable matter 2.1 %, refractive index 1.4708 (40 C), peroxide value 10.29 meq/kg, Rancimat 14.41 h; that paper has no fatty-acid table. The four compositions above imply iodine values of about 109-132, which brackets it. SAPONIFICATION VALUE IS NULL, deliberately. Kobori and Jorge print 172.86 mg KOH/g, but every composition above implies 193 (within 1), and the paper's own discussion notes that all four of its saponification values (tomato 172.86, orange 181.05, passion fruit 174.97, guava 189.91) came in below the literature (190 for tomato); this dataset's passion fruit record, from the same laboratory (Malacrida and Jorge 2012), carries 190.7. A value 10 % too low would under-lye the batch, so it is not stored and the build derives one from the composition instead. ALSO REJECTED: Table 2 of Szabo et al. gives iodine values of 44 and 35 g I2/100 g and a relative density of 0.890, impossible for a 62-65 % linoleic oil; only that paper's fatty-acid table is used. FOR SOAP: a linoleic oil much like soybean or sunflower oil - soft, conditioning, moderate shelf life. INCI name, CAS and EC numbers are CosIng's.

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.