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Coconut Oil · Cocos nucifera
Photo: (c) David Anderson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · via iNaturalist
Oils & Other
Coconut Oil
Cocos nucifera
Virgin coconut oil is pressed from fresh coconut flesh without heat or refining, which is why it smells of coconut. The refined kind smells of nothing, and the difference is not cosmetic.
Benefits
Rubbed in, it settles the redness and the itch, and the skin holds water better.
What It Is Known For
Swished around the mouth for twenty minutes. A different claim from this one, and not what was measured here.
Eating it and rubbing it on are two different questions, and this page answers the second.
It beat mineral oil on eczema in children. That is the comparison that was made and the only one this page rests on.
One trial, in children, against mineral oil. Well designed, and one.
Key Active Compounds
Pressed from fresh flesh, unrefined. The kind that was tested.
The main fat in it, and what a label will name.
Traditionally Used
A spoonful warmed between the palms and worked in, across the tropics, for as long as coconuts have been split.
How to Take It / Use It
Rub a thin layer in twice a day, and give it two months before judging it.
Cautions
An oil seals a surface, and a surface that is open or infected needs looking at rather than sealing.
Rare and real, so a small patch on the inside of the forearm is the sensible way in.
On a face that breaks out this is the wrong oil, whatever it does for an arm.
Where It Comes From
Cocos nucifera grows along tropical coasts and its nuts float, which is how it reached most of the places it now grows. The oil has been pressed at home across that whole range for centuries.
How We Choose It
We check every product so you don't have to. A coconut oil only makes our list if:
- Virgin, and the jar says virgin. Refined coconut oil has been bleached and deodorized, and it is not what was tested.
- Cold-pressed from fresh flesh. Oil pressed from dried copra is a different product with a different smell.
- One ingredient. Coconut oil and nothing else — no fragrance, no added vitamin E.
- Glass, if you can. It melts above room temperature and lives more happily in glass than in plastic.
If no product meets these standards, we don't list one. No exceptions for affiliates.
See our picks
Sources1
- Evangelista MTP, Abad-Casintahan F, Lopez-Villafuerte L. The effect of topical virgin coconut oil on SCORAD index, transepidermal water loss, and skin capacitance in mild to moderate pediatric atopic dermatitis: a randomized, double-blind clinical trial. International Journal of Dermatology, 2014. Randomized double-blind trial, 117 children