Coconut and Palm Free?

Apr 19

I will never knock someone for making a go at starting their own business. After all, I am trying to do the same thing myself. I believe, though, that there are people out there who are (most likely unintentionally) misleading potential customers with their products. I don’t think people are trying to give out misinformation, particularly when product liability is an issue, but it seems that there are a lot of companies out there that have no real idea what a claim like “coconut and palm free” actually means.

On the one hand, it should be fairly obvious, right? It should mean that the product does not contain any coconut or palm products. But big, multi-million dollar companies can be incredibly sneaky with how they list their ingredients, and it does not really instill much trust when it comes to the ingredient transparency that people, particularly those with allergies that could be life-threatening, really need to have. There are literally hundreds of chemicals derived from coconut and palm plants, and there are some plants that are of the same family that are not referred to as palm plants, but carry the same biological properties and are used just as frequently in industrial processes. To make things even more complicated, there are also a large number of chemicals or ingredients that can be derived from multiple sources (for example, Vitamin A Palmitate) that could be extracted from multiple plants, or even from animal sources, and I have yet to find a single mass-produced product that shows the sourcing for each of its ingredients.

So what I would recommend to anyone who has a similar allergy to mine, or to one that is just as difficult to deal with, is to take the time to learn what you are allergic to, where it comes from, what other plants or animals may be in the same family and what is derived from each of those. This is, in my opinion, a prudent step in self-care, as it allows you to keep an eye out for things that may make you seriously sick. If while reading ingredients on foods and health, beauty and hygiene products you come across a chemical or ingredient name that you are unfamiliar with, pull your phone out and do a quick internet search to see where it comes from.

What I have discovered through my own journey is that there are always more things I don’t recognize straight away, but for the most part, you can find the palm and coconut derivatives rather easily by knowing the most commonly used wordings, which I have copied from the search engine below. This is not a complete list, but it is a much more comprehensive list than I have found in other places. The one thing that I would add to this that has not been mentioned before is an oil called babassu. Babassu comes from a plant that is commonly referred to as the North American Oil Palm. If you happen to see a soap that claims to be palm and coconut free, but lists babassu oil, be aware that this may be a case of unintentional misinformation.

Coconut and palm trees offer a wide array of chemical derivatives, primarily fatty acids and their esters. Coconut oil, derived from the kernels, is rich in medium-chain fatty acids, while palm oil contains both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. These oils and their derivatives are used in various applications, including food, cosmetics, and industrial processes. [1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Coconut Derivatives: [1, 1, 7, 7]

Fatty Acids: Lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid. [1, 1, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
Esters: Glyceryl caprylate, glyceryl cocoate, hexyl laurate, isopropyl myristate, PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate, sucrose cocoate, and various other esters of coconut fatty acids. [7, 7, 13, 13, 14, 14]
Alcohols: Cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, lauryl alcohol, and stearyl alcohol. [7, 7, 13, 13]
Other Derivatives: Coconut oil, coconut water, coconut milk, coconut water, coconut cream, coconut flour, and various surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium cocoyl isethionate, and cocamidopropyl betaine. [7, 7, 14, 14, 15, 15]

Palm Derivatives: [3, 3, 16, 16]

Fatty Acids: Palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid.
Esters: Cetyl palmitate, octyl palmitate, and other esters of palm fatty acids.
Other Derivatives: Palm oil, palm kernel oil, and palm kernel oil fatty acids. [3, 3, 16, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28]

Common Uses: [1, 1, 3, 3]

Food: Coconut and palm oils are used in cooking, baking, and various other food products. [1, 1, 3, 3]
Cosmetics: Coconut and palm oil derivatives are used in soaps, shampoos, lotions, and other personal care products. [2, 2, 7, 7, 13, 29, 30, 31]
Industrial Applications: These oils are used in the production of detergents, biofuels, and other industrial products. [1, 1, 3, 3, 32, 33]

Note: The exact list of chemicals derived from coconut and palm trees can vary depending on the specific processing methods and applications. [1, 7, 13]

Generative AI is experimental.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_oil

[2] https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Coconut%20Oil

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecaceae

[4] https://patents.google.com/patent/US3395162A/en

[5] https://www.atamanchemicals.com/plantapon-psc_u31951/

[6] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5044790/

[7] https://www.naturalsoapshoppe.com/coconut-derivatives

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmitic_acid

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauric_acid

[10] https://www.medchemexpress.com/isotope-compound/isotope-labeled-fatty-acids.html

[11] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154323000613