Cuphea

Fats and oils may be synthesized in enantiomerically pure forms in the laboratory (30) or derived from vegetable sources (mainly from nuts, beans, and seeds), animal depot fats, fish, or marine mammals. Oils obtained from other sources differ markedly in their fatty acid distribution. Table 2 shows compositions for a wide variety of oils. One variation in composition is the chain length of the fatty acid. Butterfat, for example, has a fairly high concentration of short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids. Oils derived from cuphea are also a rich source of capric acid which is considered to be medium in chain length (32). Palm kernel and coconut oils are known as lauric oils because of their high content of C-12 saturated fatty acid (lauric acid). Rapeseed oil, on the other hand, has a fairly high concentration of long-chain (C-20 and C-22) fatty acids. 

Soaps Short-chain saturated fatty acids, particularly C12 (lauric) from coconut, are used in cosmetic soap manufacture. Though there has been interest in developing Cuphea species as a source of C12 fatty acids in temperate northern latitudes, it has proved difficult to commercialise to date. 

Cuphea hyssopifolia (Lythraceae), Eucalyptus consideniana, E. viminalis (Myrtaceae), Epilobium spp.,... 

Geriatric Arteriosclerosis Cuphea carthagenensis (Jacq.) Macbr. [C. balsamona Cham. Schlecht] (Lythraceae) Pfaffia paniculata (Mart.) 0. Kuntze (Amaranthaceae) whole plant rhizoma... 

Attempts are being made to develop oils of various cuphea species rich in one or the other of the Cg to C14 acids. (Section 6). Genetically modified rapeseed oil with lauric acid is also available but has not yet proved to be economically viable (28-30). 

Cuphea. Cuphea plants furnish seeds with oils that may be rich in Cg, Cjo, C12, or Ci4 acids. They generally contain >30% of oil and are expected to produce a commercial crop in the period 2005-2010. Problems of seed dormancy and seed shattering have already been solved. As markets for lauric oils already exist, there should be no difficulty in substituting cuphea oUs. More recently, it has been reported that cuphea will be used as a commercial source of lauric acid from 2003 onward (30, 102, 103). Pandey et al. (104) have described the oil (17-29%) from Cupea procumbens containing 89-95% of decanoic acid. See also Section 9.2. 

Cuphea oils are interesting because they come from annual plants producing glycerol esters based mainly on capric (10 0) or lauric acid (12 0) or occasionally on caprylic (8 0) or myristic acid (14 0). Cuphea plants exhibit several wild plant characteristics that need to be bred out. These include dormancy, nonuniform germination, indeterminate flowering, seed maturation over a broad time period (six weeks), extreme dehiscence (pod shattering), and the presence of viscid hairs on stem, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Several species are being studied in attempts to make them commercial (30). 

Coconut oil belongs to unique group of vegetable oils called lauric oils. The most abundant fatty acid in this group is lauric acid, CH3(CH2)ioCOOH. Other sources of lauric oils are palm kernel, babassu, cohune, and cuphea. 

Medium chain (saturated) 6 to 14 carbons Cuphea, Coconut, Bay Laurel Detergents... 

Certain short-chain triacylglycerols (SCT) produced by Cuphea viscosissima (113) could be used as sources of low viscosity triacylglycerols. There is no current abundant and commercial short-chain triacylglycerol source available but in the future new plant domestication, genetic engineering, or breeding efforts may lead to SCT biodiesel fuels. 

Punicacece (Lythracece) or Pomegranate Family.—Herbs (Cuphea), shrubs (Decadon) or low trees (Punica). Leaves either alternate, opposite (Punica) or whorled, simple, usually lanceolate to ovate, entire, often glandular and viscous. Inflorescence a raceme, spike. 

Of course, there are other lauric oils in local production—for example, babassu, tukum, murumuru, ouricuri, cohume and cuphea—but they are available only in small quantities and do not enter international trade. This chapter deals with CNO and PKO and, in particular, with those aspects of their composition and properties which significantly influence their processing or utilisation in the food industry. Their food applications are very similar and so, to avoid repetition, are dealt with together under palmkernel oil. 

Cao, Y., and A.H.C. Huang. 1987. Acyl coenzyme A preference of diacylglycerol acyltrans-ferase from the maturing seeds of Cuphea, maize, rapeseed, and canola. Plant Physiol. 84 762-765. 

Coconut oil is a fat consisting of about 90% saturated fat. The oil contains predominantly medium chain triglycerides, with roughly 92% saturated fatty acids, 6% monounsaturated fatty acids, and 2% polyunsaturated fatty acids." It is particularly rich in lauric add (47%), myristic acid (8%), and caprylic acid (8%), although it contains seven different saturated fatty acids in total. The oil finds extensive use in the food industry and also, usually after conversion to the alcohol (dodecanol), in the detergent, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. The only other commercially available lauric oil is palm kernel oil but there also exists lauiate-canola and cuphea species." ... 

Like coconut, palm kernel and babassu, many species from the genus Cuphea have potential as sources of medium-chain triglycerides. These plants are native to the New World, from southern USA to northern South America. Most are herbaceous annuals that will grow in many locations. Table 9.1.4 illustrates the diversity in fatty acid composition available in Cuphea germplasm. 

Table 9.1.4 Fatty acid composition of some Cuphea seed oils in comparison to coconut oil. ...

Dehesh, K., Jones, A., Knutzon, D.S., and Voelker, T.A. (1995) Production of high levels of 8 0 and 10 0 fatty acids in transgenic canola by overexpression of Ch FatB2, a thioesterase cDNA from Cuphea hookeriana. Plant J., 9,157-172. 

Since the early 2000s, plant-derived biobased fibrous fillers have been frequently used for the reinforcement of PLA-based materials. A well known and frequently used plant-derived fibrous filler is kenaf. Like the case of pollen as an additive, the wettability between PLLA and kenaf should be improved by the addition of a compatibilizer. Other fibrous materials are cellulose fibrous materials or fibres [383,384], cellulose whiskers [385], recycled cellulose fibre [386], cotton fibre [387], sugar beet pulp [388], flax [389], bamboo fibre [390], kenaf [391-393], papyrus [394], hemp fibre [395], cuphea and lesquerella [396], ramie [397], rice straw fibre [398], red algae fibre [399], miscanthus fibre [400], abaca fibre [401], milkweed [402], wood fibre [403] and recycled newspaper fibre [404], Poly(L-lactic acid) fibre can also be used to reinforce soft plastics such as PCL [405],... 

Mohamed, A., Finkenstadt, V.L., Rayas-Duarte, P. et al. (2009) Thermal properties of extruded and injection-molded poly(lactic acid)-based cuphea and lesquerella bio-composites. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 111, 114-124. 

Despite the increasing interest in minor oilseed crops there are no examples at the present time of any major growth areas. There is however some commercial interest in crops such as evening primrose, cuphea, Chinese vegetable tallow, crambe and certain species of vernonia. 

The lower saturated acids (C4 Cio) occur in milk fats (Section 3.4.1) and in a few seed fats. Cow s milk fat contains butanoic acid (10% mol, 4% wt) as well as smaller amounts of C, Cg, Cio and C12 acids. Sheep s and goat s milk fats contain the same range of acids with decanoic as the most significant (up to 10% mol). Octanoic, decanoic or dodecanoic acids are major components of seed oils from the elm (10 0, 60%), Zelkova serrata (10 0, >70%) and from the Cuphea genus (Section 3.3.12) which contains high levels of octanoic (—70%), decanoic (—85%) or dodecanoic (—60%) in different species. 

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