Kapok Seed Oil

Kapok is a plant of the genus Bombaxn in the Bombacae family. It is a large deciduous tree that can reach a height of 10 to 25 meters. Kapok produces 5,004,000 kapok seeds at a time, and each kapok flower contains 200 kapok seeds. Kapok seeds have feeding value and generally contain 25% to 28% oil. It is produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Taiwan and other places in China, and is also produced in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and other countries.

Kapok seed oil is usually produced by pressing or solvent leaching. Its properties are very similar to cottonseed oil, but its color is lighter. Kapok seed oil crude product is a light yellow and green oily body, which is a semi-dry oil, with a relative density of 0.91, an acid value of 11.8 mg/g, a saponification value of 185 ~ 196 mg/g, and an iodine value of 94 ~ 100 g /100g, kinematic viscosity (40°C) 36.21 mm's, flash point 210, refractive index: 1.4710 The main component of cottonseed oil is the fatty acid glyceraldehyde, of which the unsaturated fatty acid glycerol is composed of linoleic acid (30.00 %) and oleic acid (22.88%), etc. The composition of saturated fatty acid glyceraldehyde is palmitic acid (23.17%), acid-like acid (9.42%), hard acid (4.73%), etc.

Kapok seed oil is a by-product of kapok fiber production and can be widely used as vegetable oil in daily chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. Kapok seed oil does not contain gossypol and can be used as cooking oil or as one of the added oils in feed diets. The fatty acid methyl ester obtained through ester exchange reaction of kapok seed oil can be used as biodiesel.