Studies on Physico-Chemical Properties of Rice Bran Wax and its Comparison with Carnauba Wax

Rice bran wax is a natural vegetable wax and is a value added by product of Rice bran oil refineries. It is hard nontacky wax and contains higher fatty alcohols and esters which make it comparable to Carnauba wax. In the present work, studies are carried out on Rice bran wax for various physico-chemical properties like solubility, melting point, specific gravity, moisture content, saponification value, acid value, ester value, hydroxyl value, unsaponifiable matter, Iodine number etc. The observed values are compared with the reported data of Carnauba wax. It can be concluded from the results that most of the physico-chemical properties of Rice bran wax are similar to that of Carnauba wax and that’s why Rice bran wax may prove to be suitable substitute for Carnauba wax in various cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. This kind of data will also help in standardization and evaluation of Rice bran wax.