Processing sunflowers

Origin and History World and U.S. Production Processing Sunflower Seed Nutritional Value of Sunflower Seed Sunflower Products and Uses for Human Food... 

PROCESSING SUNFLOWER SEED. The sunflower seed is a four-sided, flattened fruit or achene. It has a dry, brittle hull which ranges in color from white, white and grey... 

Some European countries, such as Hungary, Ukraine and France, and Argentina grow and process sunflower seeds for oil production. Rapeseed lecithin is produced in some Canadian and European crushing plants. In principle it is possible to process lecithin with good phospholipid composition from expelled seed oils only, but the availability is small. 

Sunamed Sun bleaching Sunblock Suncefal Suncor process Sunette Sunflower... 

Many seed oils, especially sunflower and linseed, contain waxes which serve as a protective coating for the seed. These waxes soHdify at colder temperatures and impart turbidity to the oil and interfere with subsequent processing. They are commonly removed from the cmde oil by refrigeration followed by filtration, a process commonly known as winterization. 

U.S. exports of the other oilseeds are smaller and foUow different patterns (50). Exports accounted for only 2—3% of the cottonseed crop and 16—31% of the processed oil production for 1991—1994. Of the peanut crop ca one-half is consumed domestically as whole nut products and 15—20% is exported. Only about 10% of the sunflower seed crop is exported. From 1991 to 1994 an average of 70% of the oil was exported, but only about 11% of the meal was shipped overseas. 

Oil. Most cmde oil obtained from oilseeds is processed further and converted into edible products. Only a small fraction of the total oil from soybeans, cottonseed, peanuts, and sunflower seed is used for industrial (nonedible) purposes. 

Use of some oilseed proteins in foods is limited by flavor, color, and flatus effects. Raw soybeans, for example, taste grassy, beany, and bitter. Even after processing, residues of these flavors may limit the amounts of soybean proteins that can be added to a given food (87). The use of cottonseed and sunflower seed flours is restricted by the color imparted by gossypol and phenoHc acids, respectively. Flatus production by defatted soy flours has been attributed to raffinose and stachyose, which are removed by processing the flours into concentrates and isolates (88). 

Food Products. Soybeans, peanuts, and sunflower seeds are consumed as such or are processed into edible products. 

The good results obtained in the production of jellies with experimental sunflower pectin are all the more interesting as this pectin has not suffered any standardisation process like the commercial ones. Such a process could eventually overcome the undesirable characteristics mentioned above. 

Phenolic acids interfere with many major physiological processes of higher plants (35). These disruptions of function include an alteration of plant water balance. We found depression of leaf water potential to be an early indicator of allelochemical stress from ferulic and p-coumaric acids (42). Likewise one mechanism of allelopathic action by cultivated sunflower, velvetleaf Abutilon theophrasti Medic.), Koahia [Koahia saoparia (L.) Schrad.], and several other weeds was water stress (43-45). Since some allelochemicals interfere with plant-water relationships, it seemed logical that their action might be most critical at times when plants are under water stress from other causes. 

A study was carried out on the correlation between ANV determined by the lUPAC 2504 method and the corresponding FTIR spectra of various oils (safflower, sunflower, rapeseed and olive) exposed to accelerated oxidation (10 g of oil in an 80 mm Petri dish in an oven at 70 °C, in darkness). All ANV vs. time curves show a typical sigmoid shape however, the induction period for olive oil is 10 days, after which a moderate growth takes place for two days before the beginning of stabilization by day 13 the ANV of other oils starts to rise after 1 to 4 days and begins stabilization by the 6th day. This points to ANV being a measure of secondary oxidation processes, after the primary ones, as determined by the POV, have taken place to some extent. The correlation of these findings with the spectral ones is summarized in Section IV.B.4. 

Protons attached to the C atoms of the 1,2,4-trioxolane moiety of FOZs have chemical shifts at distinctly lower field than alcohols, ethers or esters. For example, the chemical shifts of the ozonide product in equation 100 (Section Vin.C.b.a) are S (CDCI3) 5.7 ppm for the H atoms of the trioxolane partial structure, and 4.1 ppm for the protons at the heads of the other ether bridge . Measurement of the rate of disappearance of these signals can be applied in kinetic studies of modifications in the ozonide structure. The course of ozonization of the methyl esters of the fatty acids of sunflower oil can be followed by observing in H and C NMR spectra the gradual disappearance of the olefinic peaks and the appearance of the 3,5-dialkyl-1,2,4-trioxolane peaks. Formation of a small amount of aldehyde, which at the end of the process turns into carboxylic acid, is also observed . 

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