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Stearic acid

Stearic acid
IUPAC name octadecanoic acid
CAS number 57-11-4
PubChem 5281
Molecular formula C18H36O2
Molar mass 284.47724
Density 0.847 g/cm3 at 70 °C
Melting point

69.6 °C

Boiling point

383 °C

Except where noted otherwise, data are given for
materials in their standard state
(at 25 °C, 100 kPa)

Infobox disclaimer and references



Stearic acid (IUPAC systematic name: octadecanoic acid) is one of the useful types of saturated fatty acids that come from many animal and vegetable fats and oils. It is a waxy solid, and its chemical formula is CH3(CH2)16COOH. Its name comes from the Greek word stéar (genitive: stéatos), which means tallow. The term stearate is applied to the salts and esters of stearic acid.





Stearic acid is useful as an ingredient in making candles, soaps, plastics, oil pastels and cosmetics, and for softening rubber. Stearic acid is used to harden soaps, particularly those made with vegetable oil.


Esters of stearic acid with ethylene glycol, glycol stearate and glycol distearate are used to produce a pearly effect in shampoos, soaps, and other cosmetic products. They are added to the product in molten form and allowed to crystalize under controlled conditions.

In fireworks, stearic acid is often used to coat metal powders such as aluminium and iron. This prevents oxidation allowing compositions to be stored for longer.



Stearic acid undergoes the typical reactions of saturated carboxylic acids, notably reduction to stearyl alcohol, and esterification with a range of alcohols.


An isotope labeling study in humans[1] concluded that the fraction of dietary stearic acid oxidatively desaturated to oleic acid was 2.4 times higher than the fraction of palmitic acid analogously converted to palmitoleic acid. Also, stearic acid was less likely to be incorporated into cholesterol esters. These findings may indicate that stearic acid is less unhealthy than other saturated fatty acids.

See also


  1. ^ Emken, Edward A. (1994). "Metabolism of dietary stearic acid relative to other fatty acids in human subjects" (PDF). American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 60: 1023S–1028S. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
  • Merck Index, 11th Edition, 8761.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stearic_acid". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.