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Oils

Yangu Oil

INCI Calodendrum Capense Nut Oil. Also: Cape chestnut oil, Calodendrum capense nut oil, Calodendrum capense seed oil, Cape chestnut seed oil.

Calculate a 100 % Yangu Oil bar

Published values

Saponification value184.1 mg KOH/g
Used by the calculator184.1 mg KOH/g (typical)
SAP for NaOH0.1312 g/g
Iodine value80.2–102.4 g I₂/100 g (typical 102.4)
INS (SAP − IV)82
Melting point—
Unsaponifiable matter0.9 %

A bar made of 100 % Yangu Oil

Hardness 28 below 29–54
Cleansing 0 below 12–22
Conditioning 71 above 44–69
Bubbly lather 0 below 14–46
Creamy lather 28 16–48

Conventional qualities summed from the fatty-acid groups; a single-oil bar is a reference point, not a recipe.

This record is disputed. The three analyses of yangu oil disagree on its two main unsaturated acids: oleic acid 24-56 % and linoleic acid 20-36 %. The typical values follow the 1983 analysis that also measured the saponification value, but anything computed from the profile, which means the soap qualities, should be read as a range. The saponification value (184.1) is about 5 % below what that profile implies, which errs toward extra superfat; a 2009 figure of 266.5 is impossible for this oil and was not used.

Fatty-acid profile

Fatty acidPublished range, %Used
Myristic acid C14:0 · saturated ≤ 0.02 0.0
Palmitic acid C16:0 · saturated 17.69–35.6 (typical 23.8) 23.8
Palmitoleic acid C16:1 ≤ 0.42 0.4
Stearic acid C18:0 · saturated 2.5–4.5 (typical 4.5) 4.5
Oleic acid C18:1 24–55.75 (typical 33.7) 33.7
Linoleic acid C18:2 19.59–36 (typical 35.6) 35.6
α-Linolenic acid C18:3 n-3 0.68–1.4 (typical 1.4) 1.4
Arachidic acid C20:0 · saturated 0.77–1 (typical 1) 1.0
Gadoleic acid C20:1 ≤ 0.21 0.2
Behenic acid C22:0 · saturated ≤ 0.24 0.2
Lignoceric acid C24:0 · saturated ≤ 0.15 0.2

Where these numbers come from

AOCS / Springer (Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society) - publisher-deposited abstract only — Munavu RM. 'Fatty acid composition of seed kernel oil of Calodendrum capense (L.f.) Thunb.' JAOCS 60(9):1653 (1983). DOI 10.1007/BF02662425. · document dated 1983-09 · read 2026-09-24

Full text paywalled; the abstract as deposited with Crossref (api.crossref.org/works/10.1007/BF02662425) was read. The saponification value, iodine value and unsaponifiable matter of the same paper are from PlantFAdb (below).

PlantFAdb (Michigan State University), based on the Seed Oil Fatty Acids (SOFA) database of the Max Rubner-Institut — PlantFAdb datasets for Calodendrum capense (plant 16565) · read 2026-09-24

Dataset #12419 'Fatty acid composition of seed kernel oil of calodendrum capense (l.f.) thunb' (1983; SOFA TAB_003561): saponification 184.1, iodine 102.4, unsaponifiable 0.9 %, acid value 2.3.

PlantFAdb (Michigan State University), based on the Seed Oil Fatty Acids (SOFA) database of the Max Rubner-Institut — PlantFAdb dataset for Calodendrum capense (plant 13215) · read 2026-09-24

Dataset #22128 'Analytical characterization of the lipid fraction extracted from seeds of Calodendrum capensis (Rutaceae)' (1999).

Chemical Society of Ethiopia (Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia); copy in the Kenyatta University institutional repository — Wagutu AW, Chhabra SC, Thoruwa CL, Thoruwa TF, Mahunnah RLA. 'Indigenous oil crops as a source for production of biodiesel in Kenya.' Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 23(3):359-370 (2009). DOI 10.4314/bcse.v23i3.47660. · document dated 2009 · read 2026-09-24

Table 2 (oil properties) and Table 4 (methyl-ester composition), read from word coordinates; its saponification value is rejected (see notes).

Typical values are Munavu 1983 (JAOCS 60(9):1653), Kenyan seed kernels, 60 % oil. The abstract, as deposited with Crossref, gives: '23.8% palmitic, 4.5% stearic, 33.7% oleic, 35.6% linoleic, 1.4% linolenic and 1.0% arachidic. Myristic and behenic acids were present in trace amounts'. PlantFAdb's transcription of the same paper (SOFA TAB_003561) gives palmitic 23.6 (the typical uses the abstract's 23.8) and the paper's constants: saponification value 184.1, iodine value 102.4, unsaponifiable matter 0.9 %, acid value 2.3. Wagutu, Chhabra, Thoruwa, Thoruwa & Mahunnah 2009 (Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 23(3):359-370), seeds from Mount Kenya forest via the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, oil yield 58 %: Table 2 density 0.908 g/cm3 (25 C), viscosity 26.6 mm2/s (40 C), iodine value (Wijs) 80.2, acid value 3.2 mg KOH/g, saponification value 266.5 and refractive index 1.4658; Table 4, methyl esters: palmitic 35.6, stearic 2.5, oleic 24.0, linoleic 36.0 (its 'literature' column, 23.6/4.5/33.7/35.6, matches Munavu's figures). REJECTED: that 266.5 mg KOH/g. The paper puts it down to 'short chain fatty acid (C12-C16)', 36 %, but in its own GC that 36 % is palmitic acid and the rest is C18; an oil made only of C16 and C18 acids cannot exceed about 208 (pure tripalmitin). The same table gives jatropha oil 112.2, so the column is not reliable. PlantFAdb 'Analytical characterization of the lipid fraction extracted from seeds of Calodendrum capensis (Rutaceae)' (1999; SOFA TAB_012074; oil 61.33 %): C14:0 0.02, C16:1 0.42, C16:0 17.69, C17:1 0.07, C17:0 0.09, C18:3 0.68, C18:2 19.59, C18:1 55.75, C18:0 4.32, C20:1 0.21, C20:0 0.77, C22:0 0.24, C24:0 0.15. An 'Unpublished (1996)' PlantFAdb dataset was not used. The three analyses disagree strongly on oleic against linoleic acid (24-56 % against 20-36 %), so those ranges are wide; the typical is Munavu's because it comes with the saponification and iodine values. Check: Munavu's profile implies about 194 mg KOH/g, so the published 184.1 is about 5 % lower (inside tolerance); its iodine value 102.4 is somewhat above what that profile implies (about 94), while Wagutu's Wijs 80.2 is close to what Wagutu's own profile implies (about 85).

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.