By Dr. Raj Dhadwal
Sea buckthorn oil and seabuckthorn oil are the same plant, but "sea buckthorn oil" on a label can mean two genuinely different oils. One comes from the orange pulp and skin surrounding the seed. The other comes from the small seed itself. They have different fatty acid profiles, different colours, and different uses, and most sellers never say which one is in the bottle.
Pulp oil and seed oil are two different oils from one berry: pulp oil is the orange, omega-7-rich oil pressed from the flesh, and seed oil is the pale oil pressed from the seed, higher in omega 3 and omega 6.
Why does "sea buckthorn oil" mean two different things?
The sea buckthorn berry has two oil-bearing parts: the soft outer pulp and skin, and the small hard seed at its centre. Each part is pressed separately and yields a chemically distinct oil. The pulp oil is thick and deep orange, carrying the berry's carotenoids along with its fat. The seed oil is thinner, lighter in colour, and closer in fatty acid composition to a standard seed oil. When a product simply says "sea buckthorn oil" without naming which fraction it is, the buyer has no way to know what they are actually getting, and neither does anyone trying to compare published nutrient figures across brands.
This is also why omega numbers for "sea buckthorn oil" are inconsistent across the internet. A figure describing seed oil and a figure describing pulp oil get quoted side by side as if they were the same product. They are not.
What does the research say about each oil?
A 2024 review in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine summarizes sea buckthorn's fatty acid and phytochemical profile, noting the pulp and seed fractions differ in their omega composition, with the pulp oil recognized as one of the few plant-based sources concentrated in omega-7 (palmitoleic acid) alongside omega 3, 6 and 9 (PMC11527678). What this review did not establish is a claim that any single-brand product, ours included, delivers a specific measured dose of omega-7 to a consumer; it describes the plant's chemistry, not a clinical outcome.
Separately, Frigolet and Gutierrez-Aguilar's 2017 review in Advances in Nutrition examines palmitoleic acid broadly, the omega-7 fatty acid concentrated in sea buckthorn pulp oil, and its role as a signalling lipid studied in metabolic research (PMC5227969). This review covers omega-7 from multiple dietary sources, not sea buckthorn pulp oil specifically, and it did not test a whole-berry puree. The form matters: an isolated oil concentrate and a whole pressed puree are not interchangeable in what they deliver to the body.
Pulp oil vs seed oil, side by side
Pulp oil vs seed oil
Pulp oil OMEGA 7
- Pressed from the orange flesh and skin
- Carries the berry's omega-7 (palmitoleic acid)
- Deep orange colour from carotenoids
- The fraction most researchers mean by "sea buckthorn oil"
Seed oil OMEGA 3 & 6
- Pressed from the small seed at the berry's centre
- Higher in omega 3 and omega 6, lower in omega 7
- Pale, thin, closer to a typical seed oil
- Often the fraction sold in capsule supplements
Fatty acid ratios vary by variety, region and processing. Figures here describe general composition, not a lab certificate for a specific bottle.
Where does Human Renaissance fit?
Human Renaissance is the only sea buckthorn puree in the world sold in a single-serve pouch. 190+ naturally occurring compounds, omega 3, 6, 7 and 9, 201 mg of vitamin C per pouch, 0 g sugar, 5,640 hand-picked berries per box. Because the puree is pressed from the whole fruit rather than the seed or pulp alone, it carries the full spread of omega fatty acids the berry produces, not one isolated fraction.
This is a different product from either oil discussed above. A puree is the whole berry, pressed and packed; an oil is a fat extracted from one part of it. For readers deciding between the puree and an oil, our piece on sea buckthorn puree vs oil lays out the practical differences, and our deep dive on omega-7 and palmitoleic acid covers what that fatty acid is and where it shows up in the diet.
Why does this confusion matter for buyers?
If a label says "sea buckthorn oil" and nothing else, there is no way to know whether it is pulp oil, seed oil, or a blend of both, and no way to compare its omega profile against another brand's number honestly. Readers checking nutrient claims across brands should ask which fraction was pressed before comparing any omega-7 figure. Our piece on filtered vs whole berry sea buckthorn covers a related labelling gap: what gets removed when a product is filtered down from the whole fruit.
Sea buckthorn and seabuckthorn are the same plant however it is spelled, and the oil confusion sits underneath a lot of the inconsistent nutrient claims online. Knowing which oil a bottle contains, pulp or seed, is the first question worth asking before comparing any two products.
To see the whole-berry puree itself, visit the sea buckthorn puree product page.
