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Neem oil is the oil pressed from the seed kernels of the neem tree, Azadirachta indica. Ourons neem oil is cold-pressed and bottled as it comes, with nothing added, so what is in the bottle is what was in the seed.
Fatty acids
Like any seed oil it is mostly triglycerides. A typical profile is:
- Oleic acid, about 53 per cent
- Stearic acid, about 21 per cent
- Palmitic acid, about 13 per cent
- Linoleic acid, about 2 per cent
The figures vary a little from harvest to harvest. The high oleic and stearic content is why the oil is thick, sets solid in a cool room, and makes a firm bar in soap.
The rest
The rest, a little under a tenth, is minor fatty acids and a mix of naturally occurring compounds from the seed: bitter triterpenoids (the limonoids that give neem its taste and part of its smell), sulphur compounds that account for the garlic note, and small amounts of sterols and tocopherols. These vary with the seed batch, the harvest and how the oil was pressed, which is why one bottle can be a touch darker or stronger-smelling than the next. Cold-pressed oil keeps more of them than solvent-extracted oil.
Colour and smell
Fresh neem oil ranges from golden yellow to dark brown-green. The smell is strong: nutty and sulphurous, somewhere between garlic and roasted peanuts. It softens in a finished soap bar or candle but never disappears.
How it is used: what is neem oil used for?