Avocado oil is one of the healthiest dietary oils available for the nutritionist and for culinary use. We explore some of its properties here. The avocado (Persea americana) is a subtropical tree found in Chile, the USA and Mexico, Indonesia, Spain, and Australasia. There have been significant developments in the production and marketing of avocado oil because of its cosmetic and nutritional value.

When fruit is rejected for the fresh market, the seed is also rejected whilst it is pulped to yield a highly valuable oil for both food and cosmetic use. Skin creams and hair detergents use it readily because it is absorbed by the skin and may even provide protection as a sun cream because of its unsaponifiable activity.

The crude oil needs to be refined, bleached and deodorised before use. Aqueous extraction produces a ‘naturally’ extracted culinary oil (Wong et al., 2008). In sensory terms, it has a buttery flavour but none of the bitterness and pungency associated with olive oil.

It is pale yellow retaining little of the odour. In shallow-pan frying, it has a high enough smoke point (225 – 250°C) to allow it to compete with extra virgin olive oil. The oil content is also similar to olive oil. The mature pulp is 10 to 32% w/w flesh but depends on harvesting time (Woolf et al., 2009). The seed contains little oil (ca. 2%) and is best used for composting. Cold-pressed oil contains 56-78% oleic acid, 10-20% palmitic acid, 4-9% palmitoleic acid, and 10-15% linoleic acids. Pigments are retained which make the oil green – 11-18.5% w/w chlorophylls and carotenoids 0.9-3.5 mg/kg carotenoids.

The health benefits are due to bioactives, mainly fats which are lipid-soluble. It contains 2-7% unsaponifiable lipids and monounsatured fats with 2230-4480 mg/kg pulp of total sterols (mainly β-sitosterol of 81-92% w/w), but also including brassicasterol, campesterol and avenasterol, 70 to 190 mg/kg tocopherols (vitamin E) with a mean value of 110 mg/kg α-tocopherol (Watson, 2009).

Heart Health Benefits

Avocado oil contains a high concentration of a sterol known as beta-sitosterol, which converts less healthy fats into variants which are not so damaging to cells. A number of studies confirming its heart health benefits have been conducted in animals. For example, one rabbit study compared avocado oil to olive, corn and coconut oils. The avocado oil had similar beneficial effects to reducing blood cholesterol levels compared to the other oils (Kritchevsky et al., 2003).

Avocado oil offers strong anti-inflammatory properties too. It helps to prevent damage to arterial walls which in turn lowers the risk of heart disease caused by plaque formation and their deposition onto the arterial walls. Furthermore, less inflammation in the arteries means avocado oil can also go a long way toward keeping blood pressure at normal, healthy levels.

It is reported to inhibit growth of prostate cancer cells, reduce fat accumulation and obesity, protect eyesight in the elderly besides (Woolf et al., 2009; Lu et al., 2005; Koh et al., 2004).

Probable Reduction In Arthritis

Arthritis is a common disease especially in the elderly. The joints are affected by a painful inflammation. It is relatively common and affects virtually everyone. One particularly common form called osteoarthritis involves the destruction of cartilage. Cartilage helps the joints move together otherwise with ease. A number of studies with avocado oil and soybean oil together known as  avocado/soybean unsaponifiables (ASU) could reduce pain, stiffness and ease joint mobility associated with this type of arthritis especially (Christiansen et al., 2015).

The oil now has prescription drug status in France because of clinical evidence surrounding its efficacy in reducing the impact of arthritis. Arthrocen is an ASU-containing supplement. Arthrocen’s avocado and soy unsaponifiables are extracted and sold in bulk form under the trade name AvoVida. It contains avocado and soy unsaponifiable extracts in a 1 : 2 ratio, respectively (Goudarzi et al., 2017).

Psoriasis

Inclusion of the oil in creams containing vitamin B12 have potential in treating chronic psoriasis (Stücker et al., 2001).

There are excellent reviews of the oil as well as the fruit itself which should be examined as it provides a very up to date assessment of the food (Dreher and Davenport, 2013; Ranade & Thiagarajan, 2015).

Nutrition facts: per 100 grams

Calories	884 kcal
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat 100g	153
Saturated fat 12g	60
Polyunsaturated fat 13g
Monounsaturated fat 71g
Sodium 0 mg	0
Total Carbohydrate 0 g	0
Dietary Fibre 0 g
Protein 0 g
Vitamin A 0%	Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 0%	Iron 0%
Vitamin B6 0%	Vitamin B12 0%
Magnesium 0%

* The per cent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. The daily values may be higher or lower depending on your dietary needs.

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References

Lu, Q., Arteaga, J. R., Zhang, Q., Huerta, S., Go, V. L. W., & Heber, D. (2005) Inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth by an avocado extract: role of lipid-soluble bioactive substances. J. Nutr.Biochem., 16(1), pp. 23-30

Wong, M., O. Ashton, C. Requejo-Jackman, T. McGhie, A. White, L. Eyres, N. Sherpa, and A. Woolf. Avocado Oil: The Color of Quality. In ACS symposium series, vol. 983, pp. 328-349. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Woolf, A., Wong, M., Eyres, L., McGhie, T., Lund, C., Olsson, S., Wang, Y., Bulley, C., Wang, M., Friel, E., & Requejo-Jackman, C. (2009). Avocado oil. In R.A. Moreau, & A. Kamal-Eldin (Eds.), Gourmet and health-promoting specialty oils (pp. 73-125). Urbana: AOCS Monograph Series on Oilseeds