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Petroselinic acid, a positional isomer of oleic acid, was isolated from the vegetable oil of Coriandrum sativum fruits. This uncommon fatty acid was subsequently used as substrate for sophorolipid fermentation with a Starmerella bombicola lactone esterase overexpression (oe sble) strain. A petroselinic acid based diacetylated sophorolipid lactone was obtained in high purity without incorporation of de novo synthesized fatty acids such as oleic acid. A total production of 40 g/L was obtained. The petroselinic acid based sophorolipid lactone was subsequently hydrolyzed towards the petroselinic acid based sophorolipid acid. For both compounds, their critical micelle concentration (CMC) and corresponding surface tension were compared to their oleic acid based counterparts. Both petroselinic acid based sophorolipids displayed a much lower CMC value than their oleic acid based counterparts, although their minimal surface tension was the same. Besides, the sophorolipid fermentation product was chemically modified towards a novel C12 sophorolipid aldehyde. This derivative constitutes an interesting building block for further modification towards new-to-nature sophorolipids with high potential for self-assembly applications. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13568-016-0199-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.