There are four omega fatty acids people commonly talk about — 3, 6, 7 and 9. Of the four, Omega-7 is the least famous, the least abundant in common cooking oils, and one of the fatty acids nutrition research keeps returning to when it looks at the skin barrier.
Omega-7, known chemically as palmitoleic acid, is a monounsaturated fatty acid found in only a small handful of plant sources — sea buckthorn, macadamia, and a few marine algae. Most everyday cooking oils contain very little of it.
Research over the last decade — much of it from Finland, where sea buckthorn is native — has explored whether Omega-7 may support the skin's natural moisture retention and mucosal comfort (dry eyes, dry mouth, sensitive gut lining). Findings are encouraging but not conclusive; results depend on dose, form and study design.
Sea buckthorn berry oil is widely cited in the botanical literature as one of the higher natural sources of Omega-7 — reported at up to 40% of its fatty acid profile in published composition studies. When we describe Amberbio Berry Oil as a 'concentrated botanical drop', this fatty-acid profile is one of the reasons.