Sunflower lecithin from

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Phospholipids can be obtained from various sources, two of which are oilseed lecithins and egg yolk lecithins. The phospholipid composition of soybean lecithin appears to vary according to the method of extraction. PC content ranges from 29 to 46% PE, from 21 to 34% and PI, from 13 to 21%. Other minor constituents are phosphatidylserine, phosphatidic acid, lyso-PC, lyso-PE, and lyso-PI. In addition to soybeans, lecithin has been found in many other oilseeds, including peanuts, cottonseed, sesame, safflower, and sunflower, among others. 

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. 

The natural sources of lecithins range from egg yolks to many seed oils such as cottonseed, sunflower, and soybean soybean is the most common because of its relatively lower cost and greater availability. It is, of course, possible to prepare synthetic phosphatidyl surfactants however, a number of practical pitfalls make such approaches difficult at best. The preparation of an unsymmetrical diester of phosphoric acid presents inherent difficulties, as does the fact that the amine func-tionahty can lead to the formation of salts of phosphatidic acid. The inherent reactivity of the ester functionalities also can lead to extensive ester interchange during preparation. 

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