Introduction to major field crops (1+1)

Importance

Sunflower has got 45-50 per cent good quality oil and possesses good odour which can be used for a variety of cooking purposes like any other edible oil.Among the vegetable oils, sunflower oil is considered as most suitable for human consumption because of high level of linoleic acid (67%) which helps in washing out cholesterol deposition in the coronary arteries of the heart and thus is good for heart patients. This characteristic has made sunflower oil nutritionally better than groundnut or mustard oil. Thus, the major use of sunflower oil is as cooking oil.




Fig: Sunflower oil.
Use of sunflower oil for industrial purposes is not very common. It is used to some extent in paints, varnishes and plastics because of good semi-drying properties. This is also used in the manufacture of hydrogenated oil, soaps, detergentsand cosmetics. The sunflower kernels can be eaten raw or roasted. Sunflower oil cake contains 40-44 per cent high quality protein. It is ideally suited for poultry and livestock rations.Sunflower hulls are used as roughage in animal food, litter, fuel and making insulation board.After harvesting, stalks and capitulum may be used for fuel purpose.