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Proportion of Acid to Alcohol in Esters (Natural or Synthetic)
I am wondering about some of the Wax Esters that are being synthetically produced, specifically about the amount of acid to alcohol combined. In nature, I don’t know if esters form in predominantly equal amounts, or if they are more random. When humans synthetically formulate esters, they combine a specific chosen type of acid, and likewise an alcohol, but not sure if they are joining them in equal proportions or not.
For example, with “Cetyl Palmitate”, is that 50 percent Cetyl Alcohol, and 50 percent Palmitic Acid? Or is it closer to 80/20? It matters when formulating, but not sure why that information is not readily available. I know that “Cetyl Esters NF” (which is predominantly Cetyl Palmitate) is a synthetic version of man-made was esters that were developed to replace/mimic the natural spermaceti wax that used to be harvested from the sperm whale.
Another example of natural wax esters would be from Jojoba Oil (which is longer chain, like mostly C20-C22), but still would leave me wondering what proportion contains fatty acids, and what proportion of it is long chain alcohols.
The last example I’m wondering about it C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, which may be a more complicated ester to form.
Anyone have knowledge about this?
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