How can what is normally an oil (or liquid) be a powder?!?!

[Saltynuts]

Curious. I was thinking of trying some saw palmetto extract in some soap. Every "normal" place you see it (Amazon, for example), its always a liquid form. Which makes sense, as its an oil. But if you go to Alibaba.com and search for it, a bunch of powders come up! How can that even work? If something is an oil at room temperature, how could it be "converted" to a powder? It makes no sense to me. Its not like something suspended in water, and you let the water dry and you are left with a powder of what was suspended in the water. The thing ITSELF is an oil. Having what is an oil in powder form just makes no sense to me.

Probably related, but I remember awhile back I was looking at different free form fatty acids (not oils, but the free form fatty acids themselves). I noticed some, like linolenic acid, is supposed to be a liquid. But then I see it being sold in powder form as well.

How can this be? Is anyone selling these powders just scamming?

I appreciate it!

 

[akseattle]

@Saltynuts, it looks saw palmetto is made from the fruit of the Serenoa repens tree. According to the article at the link below, the berries are eaten whole or dried and used to make tea. Dried and ground saw palmetto can also be purchased in capsule or tablet form. But, the most common form on the market is oily extracts of the fatty portions of the dried berries . So, looks like it's not a scam just because it's sold in powder form. There are other reasons to watch out for scams on alibaba- but just being saw palmetto in powdered form isn't necessarily a scam.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/saw-palmetto