Lecithin sunflower

Sunflower lecithin is not produced in considerable amounts worldwide. This is mainly because of the low lecithin content of crude sunflower oil as compared with 2.9% for soybean, 1.9% for canola, 2.4% for cottonseed, and 2.0-2.7% for com oil (normalized at 70% of insolubles in acetone). Lecithin removal from sunflower oil may be justified in strong sunflower producer countries. It may be used as a food additive in view of its high phosphatidylcholine and essential fatty acid content. Upon refining and fractioning stages, the quality of sunflower lecithin may be improved for the manufacture of food products and cosmetics. 

Another way to increase the phosphatidylcholine content in lecithin is enzymatic transesterification after the addition of choline. Alternatively, modification can be achieved by the addition of free fatty acids, which make the product more fluid. Chemical modification of lecithin (hydrogenation and hydroxylation of the double bonds of fatty acids) is used to increase its stabihty against oxidation. For specific purposes, a phosphohpid concentrate (>90% ofphospho-hpids) is produced by a selective extraction that separates neutral hpids, especially triacylglycerols and free fatty acids. The most important product for industrial purposes is soy lecithin. Its composition is shown in Table 3.33. Rapeseed lecithin and sunflower lecithin have quite a different phosphohpid fraction composition. 

Lecithin could be produced from any crude vegetable oil, but because of the huge quantities of soybean grown and processed, and because of the relatively high percentage of phosphatides in soybean oil, practically in the world soybean oil is the principal commercial source of natural and modified lecithins as well. The world s consumption of lecithin is estimated at 100,000 tons per year. In western Europe 30,000 tons are produced and more than the half of it is applied as modified lecithins / 7. In Hungary sunflower is the major oilseed crop, on this account sunflower lecithin has been the subject of this study. 

Although emulsifying properties of sunflower lecithin are not considered to be worse than those of soybean lecithin, users are reluctant to apply it because its consistency is even more paste-like than that of natural soybean lecithin, so it is difficult to handle. Reviewing the technical literature, it was obvious that some modification can solve this problem. 

In the experiments phospholipase was a NOVO product of porcine pancrease origin /Lecitase 10 L/ having the activity of 10,000 lU/ml. Enzymic modifications were carried out on sunflower lecithin gums of different water content in a wide range of phospholipase A2 level, i.e. 60,000 IU/100 g of... 

Using optimal process conditions it is possible to produce standard rapeseed and sunflower lecithins with similar surface-active properties to soya lecithin. Good modification processes of the phospholipids in these lecithins can be applied on a plant scale [3, 4]. 

Phospholipid Soya lecithin Sunflower lecithin Rapeseed lecithin... 

Industrial lecithins from a variety of sources ate utilized (Tables 2 and 3). The main sources include vegetable oils (eg, soy bean, cottonseed, corn, sunflower, tapeseed) and animal tissues (egg and bovine brain). However, egg lecithin and in particular soy lecithin (Table 4) ate by fat the most important in terms of quantities produced. So much so that the term soy lecithin and commercial lecithin ate often used synonymously. 

Fatty acids Soybean Rapeseed Sunflower-seed lecithin Egg lecithin... 

The total commercial lecithin potential if all vegetable oils were degummed worldwide would be 552,000 t (Table 7). Although soybean, sunflower, and rape lecithins are available in the market, the principal commercial interest is only in soybean lecithin. The aimual worldwide production is 130,000 t (Table 8). 

Sources of Lecithin. The main commercial source of lecithin is the soy bean. Lecithins are also produced from sunflower, rapeseed, maize and in small quantities peanuts. It can be produced from egg yolk but this is not commercially competitive. In the future it might be possible to produce lecithins from microorganisms. 

Cmde oils generally contain phospholipids that are removed during the degum-ming stage of refining as a crude mixture (lecithin). This valuable product is the basis of the phospholipid industry, and phospholipids are used extensively in food products, in animal feeds, and in industrial processes. The major members are phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, and phosphatidylinositols and are accompanied by smaller proportions of other phospholipids. Soybean oil (3.2%), rapeseed oil (2.5%), and sunflower seed oil (1.5%) contain the proportions of total phospholipids indicated in parentheses and are the main sources of commercial lecithins, especially soya lecithin. Palm oil contains little or no phospholipids (7-9). 

Most published research is into the content and composition of unremoved phospholipids in sunflower oil after different degumming processes. Little research has been done, however, of the separated lecithins. Some conclusions may still be reached about efficiency of production method, as well as the possible composition of these lecithins from the composition of the phospholipids remaining in the oil. 

Lecithin Soy Corn Sunflower Rapeseed Egg Bovine Brain... 

Lecithins as antioxidants. The literature is replete with references to the antioxidant properties of lecithins. For example, Pokomy (102) claimed that the addition of soybean phospholipids reduced the rate of autoxidation of sunflower oil and prolonged the induction period. Hudson and Ghavani (103) published data showing that the addition of 0.3% dipalmitoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DPE) to refined soybean oil increased the induction time during Rancimat analysis from 8.8 hours to 19.3 hours. Hildebrand et al. (104), and Jung et al. (105), also published data demonstrating the antioxidant properties of various phospholipids and commercial lecithins. 

The European reaction to traces of GMO DNA in foods has markedly affected the uses of phospholipids in food and health applications. The consumers right to know, and ingredient users avoidance of GM products, has led to a decrease in soybean and corn lecithin usage, with a shift to the usage of soft-seed lecithins (rapeseed and sunflower) that are non-GMO. 

From a commercial point of view, soybean is the most important source for lecithin however, lecithin production from sunflower (180) and rapeseed (181-183) wet gum has also been successful. Wet gum is removed during the first refining step of crude oil that is the degumming process. Traditionally, crude oil obtained from solvent-extraction process is agitated with 1-3% water at elevated temperatures (70-80°C). Under these conditions, phosphohpids and glycohpids start to swell and become insoluble in the oil. The hydrated mass is removed via centrifugation, and the dehydration is carried out under vacuum until the residual moisture is below 1%. 

The major lecithin sold domestically in commercial quantities is extracted from soybeans. Com and sunflower seed lecithins are available in limited amounts. Canola is being reviewed as a lecithin source in countries that do not grow significant quantities of soybeans. Lecithins may be added to feeds in cmde or refined forms, remain as residuals in solvent- or mechanical-extracted oilseed meals, be returned to oilseed meals as extracted gums or soapstocks at combined solvent extraction-oil refinery operations, or simply be native to an oilseed fed whole. 

Lecithins are essential components of cell membranes and, in principle, may be obtained from a wide variety of living matter. In practice, however, lecithins are usually obtained from vegetable products such as soybean, peanut, cottonseed, sunflower, rapeseed, corn, or groundnut oils. Soybean lecithin is the most commercially important vegetable lecithin. Lecithin... 

Lecithin fluid, Myverol mono/diglycerides, monoglycerides distilled from sunflower. 

Smiles, A., Kakuda, Y. and MacDonald, B.E. (1988) Effect of degumming reagents on the recovery and nature of lecithins from crude canola, soybean and sunflower oils. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 65, 1151-1155. 

Satapathy, D. et al.. Sunflower-oil-based lecithin organogels as matrices for controlled drug delivery. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2012. 129 585-594. 

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