Database/Denaturant/Sucrose Octaacetate
Mostly petroleum · ISO 16128

Is Sucrose Octaacetate natural?

Mostly not. Sucrose backbone from sugar cane/beet (natural); eight acetyl groups remain from petrochemical acetic anhydride used to cap all free hydroxyls.

INCI nameSucrose Octaacetate
CAS126-14-7
FormulaC28H38O19 · 678.6 Da
FunctionDenaturant · Fragrance
FeedstockMade by exhaustively acetylating food-grade sucrose with acetic…

How we scored it

Sucrose core C12H14O11 after -8H (natural, sugar, 334 Da) + 8 acetyl caps C2H3O x8 (petrochemical, from acetic anhydride, 344 Da) = 334/678.6 = 0.49.
What counts. ISO 16128-2 scores the atoms that remain in the final ingredient. Reagents, solvents, catalysts and protecting groups used during manufacture leave no mass behind and are not counted.

How it’s made

Acetylation of a sucrose OH by acetic anhydride (one of eight drawn). The film draws the key step and names the steps after it. Each curved arrow moves one electron pair, and the film ends on the score above.

Where it comes from

Made by exhaustively acetylating food-grade sucrose with acetic anhydride. No alternative synthetic route is used commercially; acetic anhydride itself is petrochemical.

In plain English

A very bitter-tasting compound made by fully acetylating sugar (sucrose), used in tiny amounts as a denaturant and in fragrance. About half the molecule's weight is sugar, half is petrochemical acetyl groups.

CosIng definition: Sucrose octaacetate

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Structure

2D structure of Sucrose Octaacetate

[(2R,3R,4S,5R,6R)-3,4,5-triacetyloxy-6-[(2S,3S,4R,5R)-3,4-diacetyloxy-2,5-bis(acetyloxymethyl)oxolan-2-yl]oxyoxan-2-yl]methyl acetate

PubChem CID 31340 ↗

References

  1. 1ISO 16128-1:2016 and ISO 16128-2:2017 — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and products. ISO, Geneva.
  2. 2Sucrose Octaacetate. PubChem CID 31340. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
  3. 3SUCROSE OCTAACETATE. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
  4. 4SUCROSE OCTAACETATE. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=SUCROSE%20OCTAACETATE