Pomegranate oil is made by pressing the small, white seeds found inside pomegranate arils. The process is straightforward in concept: dry the seeds, crush them under pressure without heat, and collect the oil. In practice, though, the yield is small. Even under optimized conditions, a kilogram of dried pomegranate seeds produces roughly 156 grams of oil, so you need a lot of fruit to get a meaningful amount.
What Makes Pomegranate Oil Valuable
The oil locked inside pomegranate seeds is unusual. Its dominant fatty acid, punicic acid, makes up 81 to 85% of the total fat content. Punicic acid is a rare omega-5 fatty acid found in almost no other common plant oil, and it’s the main reason pomegranate oil commands high prices in skincare. The oil also contains high levels of vitamin E (specifically gamma-tocopherol) and phenolic compounds that act as antioxidants.
In skin cell studies, pomegranate seed oil stimulated the proliferation of keratinocytes, the cells that form the outer layer of your skin, and promoted a mild thickening of the epidermis without disrupting normal cell structure. This is why it shows up in anti-aging serums and skin repair products.
Step 1: Harvest and Dry the Seeds
Start by cutting open ripe pomegranates and separating the arils (the jewel-like red pieces). Each aril contains a small seed surrounded by juice. You need the seed itself, not the juice. Squeeze or press the arils gently to remove most of the juice, then rinse the seeds in clean water and spread them on a tray in a single layer.
Dry the seeds at a low temperature. If you’re using a food dehydrator, keep it under 50°C (about 120°F). You can also air-dry them in a warm, well-ventilated spot for two to three days. The goal is to reduce moisture content enough that the seeds press cleanly without molding or producing a watery mixture. Seeds should feel hard, dry, and snap when you bite one.
Step 2: Cold-Press the Seeds
Cold pressing is the standard home method. It uses mechanical pressure at room temperature to squeeze oil out of the seeds with no solvents or chemicals involved. You’ll need a small oil press, sometimes called a seed press or screw press. Tabletop models designed for home use are widely available online and handle small seeds well.
Feed your dried seeds into the press. The machine crushes them and forces out a mixture of oil and fine seed particles. The temperature of the outflowing oil should stay at or below 50°C. Keeping the temperature low preserves the phenolic compounds, reduces oxidation, and maintains the oil’s mild, nutty aroma. Cold-pressed oils have lower peroxide values (meaning less oxidative damage) and higher phenolic content compared to oils extracted with heat or solvents.
After pressing, the oil will be cloudy with seed debris. Filter it through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer, then let it settle in a glass jar for a day. You can decant the clear oil off the top, or for a cleaner result, run it through a paper coffee filter. In commercial production, the oil is centrifuged at high speed for about 20 minutes to separate it fully, but gravity and filtration work fine at home.
How Much Oil to Expect
Pomegranate seeds are not an especially oil-rich seed compared to, say, sunflower or sesame. Expect a yield somewhere in the range of 5 to 15% by weight of your dried seeds, depending on the variety and how efficient your press is. That means 100 grams of dried seeds might produce 5 to 15 grams of oil, roughly one to three teaspoons. A single pomegranate yields only a small handful of seeds once dried, so making even a one-ounce bottle requires many fruits. This low yield is why commercially produced pomegranate seed oil is expensive.
The Carrier Oil Infusion Method
If you don’t own a seed press, there’s a simpler alternative that produces a pomegranate-infused oil rather than pure pomegranate seed oil. Dry your pomegranate seeds as described above, then grind them coarsely using a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder. Place the ground seeds in a clean glass jar and cover them with a neutral carrier oil like jojoba, sweet almond, or grapeseed oil. Use roughly a 1:3 ratio of ground seeds to carrier oil.
Seal the jar and place it in a warm, dark spot for two to four weeks, shaking it gently every day or two. The carrier oil slowly draws out fat-soluble compounds from the crushed seeds. After the infusion period, strain out the seed material through cheesecloth and store the oil in a dark glass bottle. This won’t give you the same concentration of punicic acid as cold-pressed oil, but it’s a practical way to capture some of the seeds’ beneficial compounds without specialized equipment.
Storage and Shelf Life
Pomegranate seed oil is more prone to oxidation than most common vegetable oils because of its high polyunsaturated fat content (roughly 87 to 89% of its fatty acids are polyunsaturated). At room temperature (around 20°C), its predicted shelf life is approximately 80 days. Refrigeration extends that significantly: stored at 4°C, the oil lasts roughly 337 days, and at 0°C, it can remain stable for well over a year.
To get the most life out of your oil:
- Use dark glass bottles. Amber or cobalt blue glass blocks UV light, which accelerates oxidation.
- Refrigerate after opening. Cold storage is the single biggest factor in preserving freshness.
- Minimize air exposure. Use small bottles so there’s less headspace, and cap them tightly after each use.
If the oil develops a sharp, paint-like smell, it has gone rancid and should be discarded. Fresh pomegranate seed oil smells faintly nutty or neutral.
Industrial Extraction Methods
Commercial producers sometimes use supercritical CO2 extraction, which pumps carbon dioxide at high pressure through the seeds. Under optimal conditions (around 55°C and very high pressure), this method can achieve oil yields of about 17%, with a punicic acid content of around 61% and exceptionally high vitamin E levels (325 mg per 100 grams of oil). The punicic acid percentage is lower than cold-pressed oil because CO2 extraction pulls out a broader range of compounds.
Solvent extraction using hexane is another industrial approach. It produces higher yields but leaves behind chemical residues and degrades some of the oil’s delicate antioxidants. For home use or small-batch production, cold pressing remains the best balance of simplicity, safety, and oil quality. The equipment costs less, requires no chemicals, and produces oil with the highest punicic acid content.