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Tea seed oil (also known as camellia oil, camellia seed oil, teanut oil) is an edible plant oil. It is obtained from the seeds of Camellia oleifera.

Camellia sasanqua is also given as a source of 'tea seed oil.

Description

The genus Camellia includes several commercially important species - Camellia oleifera is grown mainly in China for vegetable oil. The oil is known as 'camellia oil', 'tea seed oil', or 'camellia seed oil'. As of 2016 4,000,000 hectares (9,900,000 acres) of oleifera forest centered on the Yangtze river basin in Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi produces 0.26 million tons of oil.

Wild Camellia oleifera contains ~47% oil, whilst cultivated varieties have shown oil content from 42 to 53%. Oil analysis of cultivated varieties showed : ~76-82% oleic acid; 5-11% linoleic acid; 7.5-10% palmitic acid; 1.5-3% stearic acid - the ratios are similar to that found in wild oleifera. The composition is similar to that of Olive oil. Another analysis of several cultivars found : 82-84% unsaturated acids of which 68-77% oleic acid; and 7-14% polyunsaturated acids.

Uses

With its high smoke point of 252 °C (486 °F), tea seed oil is the main cooking oil in some of the southern provinces of People's Republic of China, such as Hunan, especially in mountainous regions; roughly one-seventh of the country's population.

Cautions

Tea seed oil should not be mistaken for tea tree oil (melaleuca oil), an inedible essential oil extracted from the leaves of the paperbark, Melaleuca alternifolia, which is used for medicinal purposes.

See also

• Camellia japonica, source of an oil known as Tsubaki oil. Mainly used as cooking oil and to hold a hairstyle.
• Camellia sinensis, for tea production.

References

1. Gunstone, Frank D.; Harwood, John L.; Padley, Fred B. (1994), The Lipid Handbook (2nd ed.), Chapman & Hall, 3.3.37 Tea seed oil, p.103
2. ^ Yang et al. 2016, 1. Introduction.
3. ^ Yang et al. 2016, Abstract.
4. Ma et al. 2010.
5. "Tea seed oil Facts, Health Benefits and Nutritional Value". Retrieved 2020-06-25.

Sources

• Yang, Chunying; Liu, Xueming; Chen, Zhiyi; Lin, Yaosheng; Wang, Siyuan (2016), "Comparison of Oil Content and Fatty Acid Profile of Ten New Camellia oleifera Cultivars", J Lipids, 2016: 3982486, doi:10.1155/2016/3982486, PMC 4753050, PMID 26942012
• Ma, Jinlin; Ye, Hang; Rui, Yukui; Chen, Guochen (March 2010), "Fatty acid composition of Camellia oleifera oil", Journal für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit, 6 (11): 9–12, doi:10.1007/s00003-010-0581-3, S2CID 24788762

External links

• Ruter, John M (2002). "Nursery production of tea oil camellia under different light". In Janick, J; Whipkey, A (eds.). Trends in new crops and new uses. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Horticultural Science Press. pp. 222–24. OCLC 51677926.

• Cooking oils
• Vegetable oils