Sunflower Oil
- Type
- Plant oil
- Botanical name
- Helianthus annuus
- INCI name
- Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil
- CAS number
- 8001-21-6
How it is made
Plant oils are pressed out mechanically, extracted with a solvent, or obtained by a combination of both called prepress solvent extraction. Hexane is the usual solvent, and seeds rich in oil can be cold-pressed without solvents.[3] Under the Codex food standard, virgin oils are obtained only by pressing and heat, and cold-pressed oils only by pressing, without heat.[1]
Crude oil is often refined. Caustic soda neutralises free fatty acids, activated earth removes pigments, and steam treatment removes substances that cause smell and taste. Deodorising also removes tocopherols, sterols and other minor components. For cosmetic grades, an extra step of heating under vacuum gives a lighter colour and less odour.[3]
Composition
Like other edible vegetable oils, sunflower oil consists mainly of glycerides of fatty acids. In ordinary sunflower oil, linoleic acid makes up 48.3–74.0% of the fatty acids and oleic acid 14.0–39.4%. High-oleic sunflower oil comes from special varieties and must contain at least 75% oleic acid.[1]
Crude sunflower oil has the highest vitamin E content, in the form of alpha-tocopherol, among vegetable oils.[3]
Uses
Sunflower oil is one of the named edible vegetable oils in the international Codex food standard for vegetable oils.[1] The European Union's cosmetic ingredient database lists it as an emollient, occlusive and skin-conditioning ingredient and as a solvent.[2]
In a US review of 244 plant oils, sunflower oil had the second-highest number of reported cosmetic uses. Of its 1,414 uses, 1,054 were in leave-on products, at up to 96%.[3]
Safety
- A cream, a face serum and a massage oil with 6–39.8% sunflower oil were patch-tested on about 100 people each. They did not irritate or sensitise the skin; one person once had slight redness that did not return.[3]
- Some people had had severe allergic reactions to sunflower seeds. In tests they did not react to refined or cold-pressed sunflower oil, although both oils contained traces of protein.[3]
- In one reported case, a woman sensitised to mugwort pollen reacted to sunflower oil in a skin test and after taking it by mouth. Mugwort and sunflower belong to the same plant family.[3]
- In 2017 the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), a US expert panel, found plant-derived fatty acid oils, including sunflower oil, safe as used in cosmetics.[3]
Products containing it
- Eye Contour Cream, Secret Of Serenity (I 406)
- Massage Oil, Eucalyptus Nun's Valley Madeira (I 141)
- Skin Function Oil, Argana (I 338)
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Codex standards for fats and oils from vegetable sources, section 2. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 European Commission, CosIng: HELIANTHUS ANNUUS SEED OIL. Retrieved 9 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 C. L. Burnett et al., Safety Assessment of Plant-Derived Fatty Acid Oils. International Journal of Toxicology 36 (2017), Suppl. 3, 51S–129S.