Types of sunflowers

Traditional sunflower oil has a high linoleic acid content. This varies, but the oil from most common varieties contain about 65-70% linoleic acid. In contrast to this are the high-oleic ( 80% oleic acid and only 5-9% linoleic acid) and mid-oleic varieties (55-75% oleic acid and 15-35% linoleic acid). Table 5.8 shows the typical fatty acid composition of these three types of sunflower 

Grown in Casselton, North Dakota, USDA Study, 1994. 

Fatty acid Traditional High-oleic Mid-oleic 

Sterols and sterol esters are also natural antioxidants but studies on these compounds have advanced more in the area of human nutrition than in the area of their antioxidant property in oil. 

Phospholipids (also known as phosphatides) are naturally present in all oilseeds. Like tocopherols and sterol esters, these compounds are oil-soluble and are found in the oil after seed extraction. There are of four major types of phospholipids  

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Sunflower. Two types of sunflowers are grown in the United States. Varieties grown for oilseed production, ca 85% of crop, are generally black-seeded, having thin seed coats that adhere to the kernels. These contain 40—50% oil and ca 20% protein. Nonoilseed varieties, ca 15% of crop, sometimes referred to as confectionery, striped, or large-seeded sunflowers, have striped, relatively thick hulls that do not adhere to the kernels. These contain 20—30% oil and are usually larger than seeds of oilseed varieties. 

Even today renewable resources play a dominant role as raw materials for surfactants, but only because of the great contribution made by soaps to the production of surfactants. If the soaps are left out of consideration as native surfactants, petrochemistry holds 65-70% of the production of synthetic surfactants [2]. But for the future a further increase of renewable raw materials is expected in surfactant production [3]. The main reason for this development is the superior digestibility in the environment of products produced from natural materials. The future importance of the renewable raw materials becomes evident from the fact that even now new plants are cultivated or plants are modified to obtain an improved yield. A new type of sunflower has been cultivated to obtain a higher proportion of monounsaturated oleic acid compared with doubly unsaturated linoleic acid [4],... 

Jiang, Z., Ahn, D., and Sim, J. 1991. Effects of feeding flax and two types of sunflower seeds on fatty acid compositions of yolk lipid classes. Poultry Sci. 70, 2467-2475. 

The above list does not include cocoa butter nor minor oils such as rice bran oil or safflower oil. Nor does it distinguish between oils from a common botanical source with a modified fatty acid composition, such as canola oil and high-erucic rape seed oil, linseed oil and linola, or the various types of sunflower oil. 

High-oleic sunflower and safflower oils By taking advantage of the wide range of natural sunflower and safflower varieties seed breeders have developed lines which, in place of the normal high levels of linoleic acid, have high levels of oleic acid (Table 2a). These are commercially available as Sunola ( 85% oleic acid) and Saffola ( 75% oleic acid) (49). They are used in Good-Fry (Section 2) and as an alternative to triolein in some enzymic processes (Section 8.5). A third type of sunflower oil (Nu-Sun) with an intermediate level of oleic acid (65%) and reduced levels of saturated acids is now available. 

There are two basic types of sunflower (1) oilseed type and (2) nonoil type, the latter supplying the bird meal and confectionary markets. The first hybrid oilseed types bore small black seeds with a thin hull (representing 20-25% of total seed weight) with a 40% oil content. The non-oilseed type is somewhat different it has a larger seed with a thicker black-and-white-striped hull (representing 40-45% of total seed weight), which is weakly attached to the kernel and can easily be removed. These seeds contain 30% of oil. 

High-oleic sunflower oil, with very low PUFA levels, may well suit the requirements of processors, but it does not support the work of nutritionists who recommend n-6/n-3 ratios within the range 5 to 10. In addition, HOSO does not represent an increased intake of family n-3 fatty acids as recommended by nutritionists, the linolenic acid content being very low for all types of sunflower oil. 

Table 15 shows the sterol composition of mid-oleic sunflower oil according to the Proposed Draft Amendments to the Standard for Named Vegetable Oils (Report of the Eighteenth Session of the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils, London, 2003). Clearly, p-sitosterol is the sterol with the highest occurrence (56-58% of total sterols), followed by campesterol (9.1-9.6%) and stigmasterol (9.0-9.3%). p-sitosterol is the main sterol in aU three types of sunflower oil (regular, mid-oleic, and high-oleic). 

Sunola is a miniature type of sunflower developed by the Agriculture Canada Research Station in Saskatoon as a sowing alternative for areas where growth of traditional sunflower is not viable. It is the result of persistent selection of open-pollinated varieties. Plant height is small (60-90 cm), and heads are 8-13 cm in diameter. Ripening time is 99-103 days— three weeks shorter than for most sunflower varieties. Sunola has a high oil content (similar to that of the best hybrids) and a higher content of linoleic acid (72-74%) than any other commercial sunflower. 

Mid-Oleic Sunflower Oil With the relatively recent appearance of mid-oleic sunflower oil, researchers have shown an interest in its use in frying processes. Abidi and Warner (120) used the three types of sunflower oil (regular, high, and mid-oleic) in the preparation of french fries, potato crisps, and fresh white corn tortilla chips. However, no general conclusions may be drawn regarding inherent stability as there is no indication of antioxidant type and concentration in the different oils. 

Sunflower Meal. The vegetable oil extraction industry produces three types of sunflower meal undehulled meal containing 28% protein and 25-28% fiber, partially dehulled meal containing 35-37% protein and 18% fiber, and double-dehuUed sunflower meal containing 40 2% protein and 12-14% fiber. Thus, the composition of sunflower meal is dependent on the efficiency of the dehulhng process (34). 

Table 5.8 Typical fatty acid composition of three types of sunflower...

Following previous works on physico-chemical characterisation of sunflower low-methoxyl pectins (Alarc o-Silva, 1990, Leitao at al., 1995) and technological utilisation in the manufacture of low calorie gels (Alarc o-Silva et al., 1992), this investigation was carried out to test the suitability of that pectin to the confection of grape juice reduced calorie jellies in comparison with two types of commercial pectin. Aiming at the optimisation of low-calorie jelly formula, based on consumers preferences, the jellies were submitted to a sensory panel test judgement and instrumental texture-analysis. 

The term allelopathy, when first proposed by Molisch (1 ), referred to either the beneficial or detrimental interaction between all types of plants and microorganisms. As presently used, this definition is generally accepted. Since 1970 a concerted effort has been made to understand the phenomenon of allelopathic interaction. The many interpretations resulting from these studies are well documented in the literature (2-4). An area currently receiving considerable attention is the allelopathic effect resulting from weed-crop and weed-weed interactions (2, 5-7). One study conducted by Wilson and Rice (7) showed that the common sunflower, Helianthus annuus L., possessed allelopathic properties. Realizing the inherent potential... 

Samples. Eleven hazelnut oils, 25 olive oils, and 7 other types of oil (canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, sesame, walnut, and peanut) were purchased from local grocery stores and Internet suppliers. For the adulteration studies, 10 olive oil and 10 hazelnut oil brands were randomly chosen from the samples purchased, and blends of olive oil... 

Water absorption of WPC was little affected by ionic strength. Fleming et al. (18] examined the effect of 5% NaCI on the water absorption of soy and sunflower flours, concentrates, and isolates. The water absorption of the soy and sunflower flours was higher in 5% NaCI than in water. Generally, salt decreased water absorption of the isolates the concentrates of both plant products were little affected by NaCI. Data reported by Fleming et al. reflect a response to NaCI however, the type of ion is known to affect the type of response of other properties (33] and possibly the same is true for water absorption. 

The most popular types of crops from which vegetable oils can be extracted include soybeans, sunflowers, peanuts, rapeseed, and Chinese tallow trees. Dozens of candidate plants can yield significant oil yields per acre [1.30]. 

Senkoylu and Dale (1999) reviewed findings on the use of sunflower meal in poultry diets and concluded that it could be used successfully in layer, broiler and waterfowl diets to replace 50-100% of soybean meal, depending on the type of diet and the nature of the other ingredients. However, results were... 

Kinetic experiments have been reported in literature for the treatment of different types of lipidic feedstock with methanol, such as for soybean [16, 33], rapeseed [25] and sunflower oil [1, 36]. The aim is to optimize the reaction conditions, namely the amount of catalyst, the excess of methanol and the reaction temperature. The results depend largely on the composition of the raw materials, but some trends can be distinguished ... 

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