Peanut Oil is also called groundnut or monkey nut oil. It comes from an annual legume (Arachis hypogaea), a plant that originated in South America. The peanut plant was first brought to Africa and then to parts of Asia. Today it is an important crop in Africa, India, China, and the U.S. The peanut kernel contains about 45 to 55 percent oil. Peanut oil is extracted from peanuts that are not of superior quality for use as nuts or in peanut butter. Extraction is usually done by expeller press followed by solvent extraction.

The typical fatty acid composition of unrefined peanut oil is 12 percent palmitic acid, 5 percent stearic acid, 46 percent oleic acid, 31 percent linoleic acid, 1 percent arachidic acid, 1 percent gadoleic acid, 3 percent behenic acid, and 1 percent lignoceric acid. Typical tocopherol values are 130 mg/kg a-tocopherol, 216 mg/kg ү-tocopherol, and 21 mg/kg б-tocopherol for a total of 367 mg/kg. As a cooking and frying oil, peanut oil is considered better because of the superiority of flavor imparted to foods. It is one of the more costly cooking oils in the United States and is quite resistant to rancidity. The typical structure of peanut oil is different from other oils because of its 4 to 5 percent content of very long-chain saturated fatty acids that are from 20 to 24 carbons long.