Caproic Acid

About This Product

Caproic acid is a short-chain saturated fatty acid with six carbon atoms, formula C6H12O2, and CAS number 142-62-1. Its systematic name is hexanoic acid. It occurs naturally in goat milk fat, which is where its common name comes from, and in coconut and palm kernel oil, from which it is recovered by splitting and fractional distillation.

At six carbons it sits at the boundary between a volatile organic acid and a true fatty acid, and it behaves accordingly. It is a colourless to pale yellow oily liquid at ambient temperature, partly soluble in water, and it has a strong and persistent odour usually described as cheesy or goat-like. That odour is detectable at very low concentration, which makes it valuable in flavour work but means handling areas need good ventilation and careful housekeeping. Being fully saturated, it is chemically stable and resists oxidation; its reactivity is concentrated in the carboxylic acid group, which readily forms esters.

Its principal use is as a raw material for esters. Ethyl and allyl hexanoate are widely used fruit flavour and fragrance materials, and the acid is also used in the manufacture of lubricant esters, plasticisers, rubber chemicals, metal soaps and pharmaceutical intermediates.

Bio Green Oleo supplies caproic acid to specification on assay, chain length distribution, acid value, colour, moisture and residue.