Calendula Oil Fatty Acids: Seed Oil vs Infused Oil

The calendic acid you read about in calendula articles belongs to the seed oil, not to the orange petal-infused oil sold for skin. An infused oil is mostly its carrier oil, so its fatty acid profile is mostly the carrier's profile. Here is how the three materials compare, what we can and cannot say about ours, and why the carrier question matters more than any calendula-specific number.

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Three different materials, three different profiles

"Calendula oil" can mean petals soaked in a carrier, the lipids extracted from petals with a solvent, or the oil pressed from seeds. The published numbers are all for the last two, and they look nothing alike.

MaterialMain fatty acids reportedSource
Calendula seed oil (11 genotypes, Romania)Calendic acid 51.4-57.6% of total-lipid fatty acids; linoleic 28.5-31.9%; oleic about 5% in the genotype shown in detailDulf et al., Chem Cent J, 2013
Hexane extract of dried petals (one Macedonian study)Oleic 42.2%, linoleic 16.6%, 18:3 11.7%, palmitic 10.9%Rafajlovska et al., Analecta Technica Szegedinensia, 2012
Infused oil (petals in a carrier)No published fatty acid analysis found; expected to track the carrier (reasoning below)none

Calendic acid is a conjugated fatty acid, 18:3 (8t,10t,12c), with three double bonds in a row, and in seeds it sits in the storage triglycerides. In the Dulf study the seed polar (membrane) lipids held only about 4% of it, against about 55% in the triglyceride fraction. A 2022 review does list calendic acid qualitatively for flowers and leaves as well as seeds (Olennikov and Kashchenko, Molecules, 2022), but gives no amounts. Quantified, high-level calendic acid is a seed-oil fact. Note that the Macedonian paper reports a plain "18:3" and does not say whether it separated the conjugated form, so do not read its 11.7% as calendic acid.

Why the carrier sets the profile of an infused oil

This part is reasoning from the numbers above, not a measurement, and we label it that way. The EU herbal monograph defines the calendula oil extract at 1:10 in a fatty oil (EMA/HMPC, 2018), so about 10 g of petals meet 100 g of oil. If everything hexane could dissolve from the petals transferred (13.76% of dry weight in the Macedonian study), that is roughly 1.4 g of lipid in about 100 g of oil, and that lipid is oleic and linoleic type, not seed-type. So even in the most generous reading, petal lipids are a small share of the finished oil. Real extraction at other ratios will differ, and hexane dissolves more than an oil infusion does, so this is a ceiling, not a prediction.

There is a counterpoint. A 2025 study found that macerating basil or sage in cold-pressed oils shifted fatty acid proportions in some oils, increasing linoleic acid in black cumin seed oil, at very high herb loads of 50-100 g per 250 mL (Laskos et al., Sci Rep, 2025). That was not calendula and not a typical loading, so it supports "close to the carrier, not guaranteed identical," and nothing stronger.

What this means for how we describe our own oil

We make one product, an infused oil: calendula extracted first, then brought into a carrier oil. We do not state a fatty acid profile for it in this article, because we do not have a published analysis of an infused oil to point to, and we would rather say so than give you a figure that belongs to seed oil. The batch paperwork names the carrier (email the lot number to [email protected]), and the independent lab results for each batch are documented there. If you are formulating and need a fatty acid breakdown, ask for the carrier and look up that carrier's specification.

The carrier question that actually changes your result

Carrier choice matters more than the calendula here, because "sunflower oil" on a label can mean very different oils. USDA reference data list four types: linoleic (about 65%) sunflower oil at 65.7 g linoleic per 100 g, a "less than 60%" linoleic type at 39.8, mid-oleic at 28.9, and high-oleic (70% and over) at 82.6 g oleic and only 3.61 g linoleic (USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy). A review of oxidation reports that oleic acid oxidises roughly one-tenth as fast as linoleic acid and linolenic roughly 1.5 times faster still (relative rates 10, 100 and 150, for pure C18 acids at 100 C; Gharby et al., Food Chem X, 2025). The practical consequence, reasoning from those two sources, is that a calendula oil in a high-linoleic carrier has less oxidative headroom than one in a high-oleic carrier. That affects how you should store it and how quickly to use it; see our storage page. It is a reason to ask which carrier, and which type, before you buy any calendula oil, ours or anyone's.

A commercial macerate data sheet shows the other side of that choice: sunflower oil carrier, 0.2% added tocopherol, a peroxide value limit of 40 meq O2/kg and a 36-month shelf life if stored at 15-25 C protected from air and light (Golgemma/Biolandes FB026, 2025). Ours has no added tocopherol, preservatives or stabilizers, which is a trade-off, not a verdict: the added antioxidant is one way to extend shelf life, and we chose not to add anything.

A short checklist for reading any calendula oil label

Where this should change your decision

Do not buy a petal-infused calendula oil because of calendic acid. If calendic acid is what you want, you are shopping for the seed oil, and our calendic acid page covers what is and is not known about it. If you want the pigments, see the carotenoid page. We found no human data on the fatty acid profile of a calendula-infused oil, so we make no claim about how it behaves on skin. For a skin condition, a dermatologist is the person to ask.

Calendula oil bottle

Calendula Oil

Nature's Golden Botanical, bottled: small-batch calendula oil in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $13.99

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Sources & Further Reading