Fractionated Coconut Oil vs Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides vs Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT)

While teaching this course last summer, an interesting question popped up from one of the students.

We were discussing oils, one of which was fractionated coconut oil.

Apart from the question being as long as a son-of-a-gun, it's a really great query:
'What's the difference between Caprylic/capric triglycerides, fractionated coconut oil and MCT (medium chain triglycerides)?'

Because MCT was Trending

As it happened, medium chain triglycerides (MCT) were trending (and yes, cosmetics ingredients trend just as much as trends come and go in the world of fashion, cooking, etc).

The circulating claims were that MCT was 'far more natural' and 'absorbed much faster by the skin' than fractionated coconut oil or caprylic/capric triglycerides.

Let's have a look, shall we?

Check the CAS Numbers

A great place to start checking out something like this is by looking at the CAS number of each ingredient. A CAS number is a unique number assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Services (CAS) to a chemical substance.

There is a CAS number for every chemical substance described in open scientific literature since 1957 and to present day. This includes organic as well as inorganic compounds.

In short, you will find every cosmetics ingredient has a CAS number.

Even if an ingredient is made up of a combination of chemicals (think emulsifying systems that are sold as a single ingredient but in fact consist of a combination of components), that ingredient will be listed with all of the relevant CAS numbers. I've seen some ingredients listed with a whole string of CAS numbers.

So What's the Difference between these 3 ingredients?

Here are the CAS numbers for the three ingredients in question:

Caprylic/capric triglyceride
CAS: 73398-61-5 (ref)

MCT: Medium Chain Triglyceride(s)
CAS: 73398-61-5 (ref)

Fractionated Coconut Oil
CAS: 73398-61-5 (ref)


Hmmm. It looks like the only difference between these 3 is the name they are sold under. The chemical composition would appear to be identical.

How to Check the CAS number of an Ingredient

If you want to check the CAS number of any ingredient, simply type the name of the ingredient followed by 'CAS number' into Google and you shall have a reply in nanoseconds.

Do Tell

Do you check CAS numbers?