Kapok oil

Kapok oil is extracted from seeds of kapok (Ceiba pentandra), a tropical tree. Kapok oil is rich in cyclopropenoid fatty acid, which is able to reduce desaturation of fatty acids and thus increase saturated fatty acids in oils (Yu et al., 2011; Anwar et al., 2014). Addition of kapok oil to diets for grow-finish pigs has been related to improvements in pork fat firmness (Maeda et al., 2017). Similar to conjugated linoleic acid, there is a nutritional opportunity for the addition of kapok oil to grow-finish diets to offset the issues of fat softness and iodine value that arise from diets containing high concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids from ingredients such as distillers dried grains with solubles or vegetable oils.

Fact Sheet: Feed Additives in Swine Diets