Tea seed oil

Tea seed oil (also known as tea oil camellia or oil-seed camellia) is an edible, pale amber-green fixed (nonvolatile) oil with a sweet, herbal aroma. It is cold-pressed^[1] mainly from the seeds of Camellia oleifera.

Culinary uses

With its high smoke point (252 °C, 485 °F), tea seed oil is the main cooking oil in some of the southern provinces of China, such as Hunan—roughly one-seventh of the country's population.

Tea seed oil resembles olive oil and grape seed oil in its excellent storage qualities and low content of saturated fat. Monounsaturated oleic acid may comprise up to 88 percent of the fatty acids. It is high in vitamin E and other antioxidants and contains no natural trans fats.

Tea seed oil is used in salad dressings, dips, marinades and sauces, for sautéing, stir frying and frying and in margarine production.

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, and used for medicinal purposes. It should also not be mistaken for Camellia oil pressed from seeds of Camellia japonica, also known as Tsubaki oil.^[2]

References

External links

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