Castor Oil

About This Product

Castor oil is expressed from the seed of Ricinus communis and refined to a pale, viscous liquid. It carries CAS number 8001-79-4 and the INCI name Ricinus Communis Seed Oil. Typical values are a ricinoleic acid content of 85 to 90 percent, an iodine value of 82 to 90, a saponification value of 176 to 187 and a viscosity of 650 to 700 centipoise at 25 degrees Celsius. In wax and cosmetic work it earns its place through two properties that follow from the hydroxyl group on its ricinoleic acid chains. First, that group makes the oil polar in a way no other vegetable oil is, so it dissolves in alcohol and, more usefully, wets and disperses pigments that a non-polar oil leaves clumped. This is why castor oil is the backbone of lipstick formulation: it carries high pigment loads, keeps them evenly dispersed and gives the wet, high-gloss film that defines the category. Second, the same hydroxyl groups make the oil roughly ten times more viscous than other vegetable oils, contributing body and cling. Hydrogenating it converts it into castor wax, the hardest and highest-melting of the common vegetable waxes. It is used in lipsticks and lip gloss, colour cosmetics, hair and skin care, as feedstock for castor wax and polyols, and in lubricants and coatings. Bio Green Wax supplies cold-pressed and refined castor oil to specification on ricinoleic content, iodine value, acid value, moisture, colour and viscosity.