What is Fractionated Kokosnoot Oil (FCO)?

Every bit we sell natural organic kokosnoot oil I would like to analyze some of the misconceptions surrounding 'fractionated coconut oil' (FCO). While it might sound like it is merely some naturally occurring fraction of coconut oil it is much more complicated than that. Firstly information technology is quite a process to brand information technology. Through various industrial processes coconut oil is chemically broken down into its constituent fat acids and glycerol.

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coconut oil the facts

These fatty acids are then separated from each other by fractional distillation and used commercially. For case, the lauric acid (which makes up about fifty% of the total coconut oil fatty acids) can exist used to make the constructed detergents sodium lauryl sulphate and sodium laureth sulfate.

But what are they going to do with the remaining fatty acids, and the glycerine? One answer is to react them back together (esterification) to make synthetic triglycerides (manufactured oils). By reacting the caprylic and capric fat acids with glycerine we get what is known as fractionated kokosnoot oil (FCO). 'Fractionated' considering it was made through a process of chemically breaking up (fractionating) the coconut oil and then fractionally vacuum distilling the fatty acids to dissever them, earlier recombining them into FCO. Information technology is as well called caprylic/capric triglyceride, which is its chemical clarification. It can also be called a medium-concatenation triglyceride (MCT), considering the caprylic and capric fat acids that constitute the triglyceride are both of medium length (8 and 10 carbons long, respectively).

Caprylic and capric fatty acids are saturated (no double bonds in their carbon chain), and so FCO is a fully saturated oil. This makes it very stable and resistant to oxidation and rancidity, giving information technology a very long shelf life. The fairly short medium-chain fatty acids go far a light non-greasy oil that readily absorbs into the pare. In part due to the shortness of the fatty acids chains and the skilful peel penetration some people may detect information technology is a pare irritant.

So is FCO natural? No, non in the sense that it is made by a circuitous industrial procedure that chemically breaks coconut oil down and and then reconstitutes some of the fatty acids into a new manufactured triglyceride (oil).

Neither does FCO (caprylic/capric trigyceride) make upwardly whatever noun proportion of the original natural kokosnoot oil. Caprylic and capric fatty acids make upward about sixteen% of the full fatty acids in coconut oil (Tabular array 1) so you might call back that there would be a fairly high percentage of caprylic/capric triglycerides in coconut oil. But there isn't.

The probability that the three fatty acids linking onto the glycerol molecule are all either caprylic or capric fatty acids is very low. In fact caprylic/capric triglycerides make up far less than 1% of natural coconut oil. This low percent explains why we don't merely extract caprylic/capric triglycerides straight from coconut oil.  That is, yous tin't get FCO through partial crystallization by slowly cooling kokosnoot oil (though at that place are websites that endeavour to explain it this way).  FCO is a synthesized product.

Essentially it is an industrial spin-off from the industry of synthetic detergents. After you accept used the lauric fat acid, and the college fatty acids (myristic, palmitic and stearic), to make lauryl sulphate, laureth sulphate and coco sulphate synthetic detergents you tin and so use the remaining caprylic and capric acids to make FCO.

Given the to a higher place information y'all can appreciate that it is misleading to draw FCO equally merely a "highly purified oil", or as having "the impurities removed" or as being "all-natural". Though these are all terms on the internet used to promote it. Fifty-fifty proverb it is "a fraction of the total coconut oil" implies it is simply extracted when it isn't. Watch out for marketing hype.

Hebe Botanicals promotes the use of natural products, not constructed detergents and synthesized past-products similar FCO.

Dr Steve Humphries

Hebe Botanicals Ltd