Partially saponified rice bran wax oxidates

A process for producing a partly saponified rice bran wax oxidate (V), comprising the steps of:

• i) providing a rice bran wax (R) containing less than 20% by weight, based on the total weight of the rice bran wax (R), of polyesters formed from polyhydric alcohols and aliphatic carboxylic acids having 8 to 20 carbon atoms;
• ii) providing a mixture (M) of chromium trioxide and sulfuric acid;
• iii) performing the oxidation of the rice bran wax (R) by reacting the rice bran wax (R) with the mixture (M) while stirring at a temperature of 90 to 150° C., in order to obtain a reaction mixture containing rice bran wax oxidate (O);
• iv) ending the reaction and leaving the reaction mixture obtained in step iii) to stand until an organic phase has separated from an aqueous phase;
• v) separating off the organic phase;
• vi) optionally removing residues containing chromium compounds from the organic phase in order to obtain the rice bran wax oxidate (O) in purified form;
• vii) optionally repeating the sequence of steps ii) to vi) using the rice wax oxidate (O), optionally in purified form, rather than the rice bran wax (R);
• and
• viii) saponifying the rice bran wax oxidate (O), optionally in purified form, by reacting it with a basic salt,
• wherein no alcohol component is added to the reaction mixture in step iii) to step viii).