Let’s talk about Avocado Oil today. It is one of my favorite botanical oil, as it is pack with nutritious botanical compounds which are beneficial to our health as well as our skin. Let’s look into it.
Botanic Profile of Coconut Oil
- Scientific Name / INCL ā Persea gratissima oil
- Botanic Family ā LauracĆ©es
- Extraction Process– After mixing the avocado pulp with lukewarm water, the paste obtained is kneaded and then centrifuged in order to recover the virgin oil separately from the water.
- Part of the plant extracted – fruit pulp
- Origin ā Although native to Central America, avocado is now produced in many places around the world, including New Zealand, the United States, and South Africa
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
- Appearance: thick oily liquid, sometimes cloudy, which can naturally have a pulpy appearance and have plant deposits. This vegetable oil can also partially solidify if it is placed in the cold, due to its fatty acid composition.
- Color: yellow to dark green
- Smell: sweet and pleasant
- Texture & Absorbtion : Heavy and rich. I found it slow in penetration into the skin if you use apply it directly over your skin. To improve its penetration, mix it with a more penetrating oil (Kukui, Macadamia, Hazelnut, Jojoba ā¦)
- Taste: very fruity and sweet characteristic of avocado.
Avocado oil fatty acid composition
PALMITIC ACID – 18.0%
LINOLEIC ACID – 12.0%
PALMITOLEIC ACID – 9.0%
STEARIC ACID – 1.0%
EVERYTHING ELSE – 1.0% The unrefined oil contains about 3500 ppm phytosterols (mainly sitosterol) and ca. 120 ppm tocopherols.
The fatty acid profile is very similar to olive oil, therefore if you are looking for substitution of avocado oil in your formulation, olive oil is the closest you can get. They are both very high in oleic acid. Typical avocado oil has 76% monounsaturates (oleic and palmitoleic acids), 12% polyunsaturated (linoleic and linolenic acids), and 12% saturates (palmitic and stearic acids); these values are given as a percentage of fatty acid/total fatty acids. The main antioxidant in the oil is a-tocopherol, which is present at levels of 70-190 mg/kg oil. b-, g-, and d-tocopherols are only present in minor amounts (<10 mg/kg oil). Other nonlipid components present in the oil include chlorophylls (11-19 mg/kg oil) and carotenoids (1.0-3.5 mg/kg oil).
Avocado Oil: Skin Benefits
The main fatty acids of avocado oil are palmitic, oleic, linoleic, and palmitoleic acids. Like I mentioned in my previous post 100% Shea Conditioning Soap Bar, Oleic acid, or omega-9 fatty acid, is a non-essential fatty acid (i.e. ā it is produced by the human body), Ā Palmitic acid creates a nice protective layer with no stickiness or greasiness. Palmitic acid makes an excellent ingredient for winter skin and hair care when you need a protective layer over your skin or hair and a long-lasting emolliency.
Refined or unrefined avocado oil, or avocado butter?
| unrefined virgin avocado oil | Refined Avocado Oil | Avocado Butter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extraction Method | Cold-pressed | Following the drying of the avocado flesh to remove as much water as possible (the flesh is about 65% water), oil for cosmetics is usually extracted with solvents at elevated temperatures. After extraction, it is usuallyĀ refined, bleached, and deodorized. | In the hydrogenation process, the polyunsaturated avocado oil molecules (which form the liquid oil) are bonded with hydrogen to form saturated fats, which are solid. |
| Properties | See above | an odorless yellow oil. | soft, yellow-green butter with mild odor and excellent melting properties which is suitable for skincare. |
| Penetration | Slow | Slow | Medium |
Just because oil has been refined, that doesnāt make it necessarily bad, but it certainly doesnāt make it any better. For example, some people (weāve never met them, but we have to assume!) simply donāt like the taste of avocado. This means that unrefined avocado oil wonāt be the best choice for salads, cooking, or any type of ingestion. On the other hand, refined avocado oil might be just what they need as it will have a much more subtle taste, and still retain a small part of the benefits of unrefined avocado oil. Of course, some of the great benefits of it, such as the high levels of phytosterols and chlorophyll, will be greatly reduced in the refined oil.
The refining process also uses chemicals, which then need to be stripped out of the oil, and that also removes some of the healthy components. The refining process can strip out the nutrients at the same time as it removes the color, flavor, and smell. A little-known fact is that due to the refinement process, avocados that are rotten, bruised, or damaged can be used, and the oil will still smell and taste okay after processing. This isnāt exactly the best proposition, and would never be done when producing a high-quality avocado oil.
My DIY formulations with Avocado Oil
Below is some of my favourite formulations using virgin unrefined avocado oil, because it is such a thick, rich and slow penetration oil, I don’t use it neat on the skin. I usually formulate it with a proper percentage and together with others lovely botanical ingredients. I only use cold-pressed unrefined avocado oil, and because it has an intensive green colour and a fruity-green scent that could come through the end products, therefore please keep in mind that below formulations you can simply just swap it with refined avocado oil. I haven’t try to swap if with avocado butter though, you tell me.
My cooking recipe with Avocado Oil
Where to buy
The links to purchase are what I am actually using and I highly recommended them for their purest grade quality.
Plant Therapy:
Amazon:
Conclusion:
I might as well declared my profound love for avocado oil, this lovely yummylicious fruit is not only nutritious for eating, the cold-pressed oil extracted from it can also be used as delicious salad dressing and as well as soaping and skincare formulations. When it comes to choosing between refined, unrefined avocado oil and avocado butter, it really depends on how you would like it aesthetically of your end product and as well as how natural you would like your skincare product. Like I mentioned before, refined avocado oil is chemically processed in order to remove its odor and color. Personally, the smell and the color of virgin avocado oil don’t bother me at all. And another reason for using it for my formulation is that I can also double use it as my cooking oil (baking, salad dressing, you name it…).
Let me know what you think of this oil, and whether you like it as much as I. Happy formulating with it and happy baking!
If you like my tutorial, please consider donating me a coffee! Cheers
Source
- Nayak BS, Raju SS, Chalapathi Rao AV. Wound healing activity of Persea americana (avocado) fruit: a preclinical study on rats. J Wound Care. 2008 Mar;17(3):123-6.
- Unlu NZ, Bohn T, Clinton SK, Schwartz SJ. Carotenoid absorption from salad and salsa by humans is enhanced by the addition of avocado or avocado oil. : J Nutr. 2005 Mar;135(3):431-6.
- Tamar Gutfinger1 and A. Letan1 Studies of unsaponifiables in several vegetable oils. Lipids_1987_9_9_658
- “Les huiles vĆ©gĆ©tales : huiles de santĆ© et de beautĆ©” de Chantal et Lionel Clergeaud – Editions Amyris
- Avocado Oil Extraction Processes: Method for Cold-Pressed High-Quality Edible Oil production Versus Traditional Production, Thu, 15 Oct 2015 in Journal of Agricultural Engineering
- Avocado Oil: Characteristics, Properties, and Applications, Molecules. 2019 Jun; 24(11): 2172.Published online 2019 Jun 10. doi: 10.3390/molecules24112172
- What is unrefined, extra virgin cold-pressed avocado oil? By Marie Wong, Cecilia Requejo-Jackman, and Allan Woolf
For further reading:
- Eyres, L., L. Sherpa, and G. Hendriks, Avocado oil: A new edible oil from Australasia, Lipid Technology 13:84-88 (2001).
- Woolf, A., M. Wong, L. Eyres, T. McGhie, C. Lund, S. Olsson, Y. Wang, C. Bulley, M. Wang, E. Friel, and C. Requejo-Jackman, Avocado oil. From cosmetic to culinary oil, in Gourmet and Health-Promoting Specialty Oils, R. Moreau and A. Kamal-Eldin, eds., AOCS Press, Urbana, Illinois, USA, 2009, pp. 73-125.
- For more information about the Gourmet and Health-Promoting Specialty Oils monograph, visit http://tinyurl.com/gourmet-oils-aocs . For a review of the book, see inform 21:164, 2010.
Calleigh
Hi, I am Calleigh, MEng Chemical Engineering and a process engineer, and I'm here to show you how to DIY your skincare and household products with the correct formulation and using only natural ingredients. I believe that eating good food (Yes I have cooking recipes too!) and living in a chemical-free environment are the keys to having a healthy lifestyle. And that doesn't need to be expensive.
