thoughts about the SAP value of laurel berry oil

[Guest guest]

SO .. is it good, mediocre or poor material for home-soap making?

Well Butch, now you got me curious and I decided to do a little thinking out

loud. I have a soaper's table with the fatty acid (FA) breakdown of number of

common soaper's oils. I thought I'd compare it to others:

Lauric acid is found in coconut oil at 39-54% and in Palm kernel oil (47%). To

soapers these oils are known for increasing bar hardness and producing lather.

In the case of coconut oil too high a percentage is drying to the skin; I cannot

comment on this factor for palm as I don't use it, but someone will. Both of

these are a bit higher then your comparative laurel berry oil.

Myristic acid is in coconut (15-23%), emu oil (0.4%), lard (6%) and palm oil

(14%).

Palmitic acid is found in a lot of oils including almond (6-8%), apricot kernel

(4-7%), avocado (7-32%), cocoa butter (25-30%), coconut (6-11%), canola (1%),

corn (12-14%), emu (21%), linseed/flax (4-9%), grapeseed (5-11%), hazelnut

(4-6%), hemp (6%), lard (28%), olive (7-14%), palm (43-45%), palm kernel (9%),

safflower (6-7%), sesame (8-11%), shea butter (3-7%), soybean (9-12%), sunflower

(7%) and tallow (24-32%). There are others, but these are the ones I see

discussed in terms of soap and toiletries. Of these it looks to me like your

laurel berry oil is most like corn or olive oil.

Stearic acid is found in avocado (1.5%), cocoa butter (31-35%), coconut (1.4%),

corn (2-3%), emu (9%), linseed/flax (2-4%), grapeseed (3-6%), hazelnut (1-4%),

hemp (2%), lard (13%), olive (3-5%), palm (4-5%), sesame (4-6%), shea butter

(35-45%), soybean (4-6%), sunflower (4%) and tallow (20-25%). So in this case

it looks like avocado, coconut, corn or hazelnut oils.

Oleic acid is found in almond (64-82%), apricot kernel (58-74%), avocado

(36-80%), cocoa butter (34-36%), coconut (4-11%), canola (32%), corn (28-37%),

emu (50%), jojoba (10-13%), linseed/flax (14-39%), grapeseed (12-28%), hazelnut

(65-85%), hemp (12%), lard (46%), olive (63-81%), palm (38-40%), palm kernel

(18%), safflower (10-20%), sesame (37-42%), shea butter (40-55%), soybean

(21-27%), sunflower (16%) and tallow (37-43%). So here your oil looks like

cocoa butter, palm, sesame and tallow.

Linoleic acid is found in almond (8-28%), apricot kernel (20-34%), avocado

(6-18%), cocoa butter (3%), coconut (1-2%), canola (15%), corn (45-56%), emu

(14%), linseed/flax (7-19%), grapeseed (58-78%), hazelnut (7-11%), hemp (57%),

lard (6%), olive (5-15%), palm (9-11%), safflower (70-80%), sesame (39-47%),

shea butter (3-8%), soybean (46-53%), sunflower (70%) and tallow (2-3%). Your

laurel berry looks like apricot kernel here to me.

Having done this analysis I was hoping that your oil would have a few

commonalities with another one, so that I could say " it looks mostly like " X "

oil " and therefore I would start out by treating it as if it were oil " X " and

use its SAP value to start. Unfortunately, for this analysis your oil is pretty

unique, so I can't really say it is clearly like one particular oil. When I

narrow down each FA component to its single closest match, it looks like this:

Lauric acid: laurel berry 11-35%, coconut 39-54% (both potential choices were

over)

Myristic acid: laurel berry 0.1%, emu 0.4%

Palmitic acid: laurel berry 10-18%, corn 12-14%

Stearic acid: laurel berry 2%, corn 2-3%

Oleic acid: laurel berry 33-41%, palm oil 38-40%

Linoleic acid: laurel berry 18-32%, apricot 20-34%

I would therefore probably treat it like corn oil if I were experimenting, and

see how it goes.

Regarding iodine content, my reference indicates that the lower the iodine

content, the harder the bar. The oils noted above range from <10 (coconut) to

166 (hemp). At 75-99, your laurel oil resembles avocado (80-95), castor

(82-90), jojoba (80-85) and olive (79-95), but NOT corn (103-130).

Hope this is interesting and possibly helpful. I'd be interested in what the

other soapers have to say about my guess at using the SAP for corn oil. Laurie

---------------------------

> Here is a fatty acid break down of Laurel Berry Oil

>

> 12:00Lauric acid hardness fluffy lather 11%-35%

> 14:00Myristic Acid same as Luaric 0 .1%

> 16:00Palmitic Acid hardness stable lather 10%-18%

> 18:00Stearic Hardness stable lather 2%

> 18:01Oleic conditioning 33-41%

> 18:02Linoleic conditioning 18%-32%

> Iodine 75-99

> 1-6% unsaponifiables

> Can't seem to find a sap value in my file though :-(

>

> Anyone have it?

> HTH

> Debs