Cottonseed oil: makeup, processing and reported health effects
What it found
Cottonseed oil is mostly linoleic and palmitic acid, and the authors report that it lowered total and LDL cholesterol in a small group of healthy adults.
The paper also describes lab and animal findings on cancer cells, allergies and antioxidants.
What they found
Studies in people
Cholesterol in people
In one experiment, healthy adults aged 18 to 40 ate a diet rich in cottonseed oil (95 g daily) for one week. Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol went down, and in women HDL did not drop.
Animal and lab studies
Cholesterol in animals
In rats, swapping corn oil for cottonseed oil for four weeks lowered total cholesterol and HDL. The authors suggest the non-oil part of cottonseed oil may be behind the blood lipid effects.
Cancer cells in lab
Gossypol, a compound in cottonseed, has shown anti-proliferative effects against several human cancer cell lines, including breast, ovary, prostate and colon. These were lab tests on cells, not studies in people.
Other findings
Main fatty acids
Cottonseed oil is about 54% linoleic acid, 22% palmitic acid and 20% oleic acid on average. Linoleic and oleic acids together make up roughly 75% of the total fatty acids.
Gossypol and processing
Crude cottonseed oil contains gossypol, a pigment that can be toxic to livestock in its free form. Refining and bleaching bring gossypol in the oil down to less than 1 ppm.
Antioxidants in the oil
Cottonseed oil contains tocopherols, natural antioxidants that slow rancidity. Processing can remove part of them, with deodorization taking out 30 to 60% of the remaining natural antioxidants.
What the authors conclude
“Cottonseed oil plays its role in cardiovascular diseases, anti-allergic response, anticancer activity, antioxidant activity.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say cottonseed oil plays a role in cardiovascular disease, anti-allergic response, anticancer activity and antioxidant activity.
- They state that the overall characteristics and health benefits of cottonseed oil will further improve its usefulness.
- They have summarised the multi-dimensional features of cottonseed oil for researchers who can do further work in each area.
How it was done
The authors say vegetable oils play a vital role in the human diet for health benefits, and they wanted to bring together what is known about cottonseed oil's makeup, processing and health effects for other researchers.
They gathered published studies on cottonseed oil's physical and chemical properties, how it is extracted and refined, its fatty acid and minor component makeup, and its reported health effects. These included a one-week trial in healthy adults, animal feeding studies, and lab tests on cancer cells.
What it can’t tell you
- The cholesterol trial was small and lasted only one week, so it cannot show what happens over the long term.
- The cancer and cholesterol findings in animals and cells cannot show what happens in people.
- The paper is a review of other studies, so it does not present new experiments of its own.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology - NIGAB, Pakistan; Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan; Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan
The paper
- Title
- Physicochemical features, functional characteristics, and health benefits of cottonseed oil: a review
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Zia MA, Shah SH, Shoukat S, Hussain Z, Khan SU, Shafqat N (2021). Physicochemical features, functional characteristics, and health benefits of cottonseed oil: a review. Brazilian journal of biology = Revista brasleira de biologia. doi:10.1590/1519-6984.243511Free full textPubMed 34378680DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error