List of Vegetable Oils

List Of Vegetable Oils

Vegetable oils are triglycerides extracted from plants. Such oils have been part of human culture for millennia. Edible vegetable oils are used in food, both in cooking and as supplements. Many oils, edible and otherwise, are burned as fuel, such as in oil lamps and as a substitute for petroleum-based fuels. Some of the many other uses include wood finishing, oil painting, and skin care.

There are three principal methods for extracting vegetable oils. The relevant part of the plant may be placed under pressure to extract the oil, giving an expressed oil. Oils may also be extracted from plants by dissolving parts of plants in water or another solvent. The solution may be separated from the plant material and concentrated, giving an extracted or leached oil. The mixture may also be separated by distilling the oil away from the plant material. Oils extracted by this latter method are called essential oils. Essential oils often have different properties and uses than pressed or leached vegetable oils. Macerated oils are made by infusing parts of plants in a base oil, a process called liquid-liquid extraction.

The term "vegetable oil" can be narrowly defined as referring only to substances that are liquid at room temperature, or broadly defined without regard to a substance's state of matter at a given temperature. For this reason, some of the entries on this list do not qualify as vegetable oils according to all understandings of the term.

Although most plants contain some oil, only the oil from certain major oil crops complemented by a few dozen minor oil crops is widely used and traded. These oils are one of several types of plant oils.

Vegetable oils can be classified in several ways, for example:

  • By source: most, but not all vegetable oils are extracted from the fruits or seeds of plants, and the oils may be classified by grouping oils from similar plants, such as "nut oils".
  • By use: as described above, oils from plants are used in cooking, for fuel, for cosmetics, for medical purposes, and for other industrial purposes.

The vegetable oils are grouped below in common classes of use.

Read more about List Of Vegetable Oils:  Oils Used For Biofuel, Drying Oils, Other Oils

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