Sea buckthorn is described almost everywhere as containing "more than 190 bioactive compounds". The number is repeated so often that it has stopped meaning much. What follows is narrower and more useful: the measured composition of the plain juice, and what each part of it is.
All figures on this page come from Biosash's own laboratory panel for their cold-pressed juice, stated per 100 ml. A normal serving is 10 ml, so a serving delivers a tenth of each number. Other brands, other harvests and other pressing methods will differ.
The four omegas, in one fruit
This is the unusual part. Most foods give you one or two of the omega fatty acids; sea buckthorn pulp carries all four, and it is one of the few plant sources of omega 7 worth naming.
| Omega 7 | 2072.14 mg |
| Omega 9 | 1683.57 mg |
| Omega 6 | 423.16 mg |
| Omega 3 | 102.04 mg |
Omega 7 (palmitoleic acid) is the headline. In the plant world it is rare — macadamia is the other name that comes up — and sea buckthorn pulp oil is the richest common source. It is a monounsaturated fat, and it is the component most often cited in work on skin, mucous membranes and metabolic markers.
Omega 3 and omega 6 are both present, and in the seed oil the balance tips much further towards them. The ratio between the two is close to 1:1 in seed oil, which is unusual and generally considered favourable, given how heavily most modern diets lean towards omega 6.
Vitamin C, and the citrus comparison
The juice panel gives 35.25 mg of vitamin C per 100 ml. For reference, orange juice typically lands around 40–50 mg per 100 ml, so the two are in the same range — the "many times more vitamin C than oranges" line you will see elsewhere usually refers to the whole fresh berry, not the juice, and to varieties at the high end of a wide natural range.
That is worth saying plainly, because it is the most inflated claim made about this berry. The vitamin C content of fresh sea buckthorn is genuinely high and genuinely variable — subspecies, altitude and harvest timing all move it — but a 10 ml serving of juice is not a megadose of anything.
The rest of the panel
| Omega 7 | 2072.14 mg |
| Omega 3 | 102.04 mg |
| Omega 6 | 423.16 mg |
| Omega 9 | 1683.57 mg |
| Vitamin C | 35.25 mg |
| Vitamin E | 2.57 mg |
| Beta Carotene | 12.68 mg |
| Energy | 34.08 Kcal |
| Total Carbohydrates | 3.88 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.77 % |
| Total Fat | 1.22 g |
| Saturated Fat | 270 mg |
| Trans Fat | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 g |
| Protein | 0.45 g |
| Calcium | 5.16 mg |
| Iron | 1.58 mg |
| Vitamin A | 608.2 IU |
| Vitamin B1 | 0.27 mg |
| Vitamin B2 | 0.30 mg |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.31 mg |
| Vitamin D | 54.3 µg |
| Sodium | 43.5 mg |
| Folic Acid | 0.422 mg |
| Phosphorus | 21.56 mg |
| Potassium | 90 mg |
What the main entries are doing
- Beta carotene — 12.68 mg per 100 ml. This is what makes the berry and its oil orange. The body converts it to vitamin A as needed.
- Vitamin E — 2.57 mg per 100 ml, mostly as tocopherols. It is a fat-soluble antioxidant, and it is also what keeps the oil itself from going rancid quickly.
- Flavonoids — not on the panel, because they are hard to state as a single figure, but they are a large part of why the berry is studied. Isorhamnetin, quercetin and kaempferol are the ones usually named.
- Sugar — 0 g. Worth noticing. The juice is sour because there is almost nothing sweet in it, which is also why so many commercial "sea buckthorn drinks" elsewhere are mostly apple juice and sugar with a splash of the real thing.
Pulp oil and seed oil are not the same product
If you take one thing from this page, take this. The two oils come from the same berry and behave differently:
Pulp / berry oil
Pressed from the flesh and skin. Deep orange-red, heavier, and the source of the omega 7 and most of the carotenoids. This is the oil behind the skin claims.
Seed oil
Pressed from the small seeds. Paler, lighter, high in omega 3 and 6 with a near 1:1 ratio, and higher in vitamin E. Low in omega 7.
Why the numbers move
Two bottles of honest sea buckthorn juice can test differently, and neither is wrong. The variables are real:
- Subspecies and provenance. H. rhamnoides has many subspecies; the Himalayan and Central Asian populations differ from European cultivars.
- Altitude and UV. Higher, harsher sites tend to push protective compounds up.
- Harvest timing. Vitamin C falls and oil content rises as the fruit matures and after frost.
- Processing. Heat degrades vitamin C and the carotenoids, which is the whole argument for cold pressing. Light does the same, which is the argument for an opaque bottle.