At present, the increasing interest of consumers fo r minimally processed products has encouraged the production of edible oils obtained exclusively by physical means with minimum loses of valuable components. Sunflower oil ranks on the fourth position in the world edible oil production and it represents 9% of the world oil supply. In the last years, numerous advances have been attained in the development of new sunflower germ-plasmas with modified levels of interesting minor components in sunflower seeds and oils, mainly tocopherols and phytosterols. These compounds contribute to the important nutritional and/or technological properties of these oils. The genetic studies have been performed in parallel to the effort in the analytical characterization, the development of procedures of extraction and refining and the nutritional and technological properties of the oils. In the present work we report the compositions of fatty acids, tocopherols and sterols in oils obtained from genetically modified sunflower seeds rich in phytosterols. The fatty acid composition of the oils presented a great variability. Saturated fatty acids showed values that ranged between 11 and 35%, monounsaturated between 19 and 66% and polyunsaturated between 7% and 67%. The total content of sterols was found to be between 2412 and 8507 mg/kg. ß-Sitosterol showed values that ranged between 59 and 67% and Δ-7 stigmastenol between 9 and 16%, which are within the range of normal values in sunflower oils. A positive correlation between the content of palmitic acid and the campesterol content was found in the analyzed samples, whereas an opposite correlation between the content of palmitic acid and the content of Δ-7 stigmastenol was observed. In addition, the oils presented higher contents of tocopherols than those found in conventional sunflower oil.

Trabajo presentado en el 6th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress, celebrado en Sevilla del 11 al 15 de septiembre de 2016.

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