High oleic sunflower: Physical and chemical characteristics

Breeding for sustainable oilseed crop yield and quality in a changing climate

As the effects of climate change continue to alter crop-growing conditions year-to-year on both prime and marginal agricultural landscapes, we must consider the effects not only on yield but also on quality. This is particularly true for oilseed crops. In this review, we explore the importance of oilseeds in general and the specific uses of major oilseed crops including soybean, sunflower, canola, peanut, and cottonseed. We review the physiology of seed oil production, from the perspective of the plant's adaptation to environmental changes. Of particular importance is the role of temperature and water availability on oil synthesis. We then discuss how this influences genetic variation, phenotype variability due to environment, and the interaction of genetics and environment to affect composition and yield of vegetable oils. The ability to predict these effects using genomics and bioinformatics is an important new frontier for breeders to maximize stability of a desired fatty acid composition for their crop over increasingly extreme agricultural environments.

Evaluation of cytotoxicity of nanolipid carriers with structured Buriti oil in the Caco-2 and HepG2 cell lines

Buriti oil is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids and tocopherols and it is used for the treatment of various diseases. One strategy to restructure the triglycerides is enzymatic interesterification and nanocarriers have been employed to improve the solubility, bioavailability and stability of active compounds. This work aims to investigate the in vitro cytotoxicity of this structured oil in nanoemulsions and nanostructured lipid carriers to expand the applicability of the crude oil. None of the samples had a cytotoxic effect on Caco-2 and HepG2 cell lines at the concentrations tested. Structured lipids acted protecting against oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. Additionally, no consumption of glutathione has been observed in both cells, and the compounds present in buriti oil are possibly acting as antioxidants. Thus, nanoparticles prepared with interesterified buriti oil had low cytotoxicity and high oxidative stability, with great potential for future applications.

Substrate selectivity of plant and microbial lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferases

Linoleic acid (18:2) is found in a large variety of plant oils but to date there is limited knowledge about the substrate selectivity of acyltransferases required for its incorporation into storage triacylglycerols. We have compared the incorporation of oleoyl (18:1) and linoleoyl (18:2) acyl-CoAs onto lysophosphatidic acid acceptors by sub-cellular fractions prepared from a variety of plant and microbial species. Our assays demonstrated: (1). All lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPA-AT) enzymes tested incorporated 18:2 acyl groups when presented with an equimolar mix of 18:1 and 18:2 acyl-CoA substrates. The ratio of 18:1 to 18:2 incorporation into phosphatidic acid varied between 0.4 and 1.4, indicating low selectivity between these substrates. (2). The presence of either stearoyl (18:0) or oleoyl (18:1) groups at the sn-1 position of lysophosphatidic acid did not affect the selectivity of incorporation of 18:1 or 18:2 into the sn-2 position of phosphatidic acid. (3). All LPA-AT enzymes tested incorporated the saturated palmitoyl (16:0) acyl group from equimolar mixtures of 16:0- and 18:1-CoA. The ratios of 18:1 to 16:0 incorporation are generally much higher than those of 18:1 to 18:2 incorporation, varying between 2.1 and 8.6. (4). The LPA-AT from oil palm kernel is an exception as 18:1 and 16:0 are utilised at comparable rates. These results show that, in the majority of species examined, there is no correlation between the final sn-2 composition of oil or membrane lipids and the ability of an LPA-AT to use 18:2 as a substrate in in vitro assays.

Efficient lipase catalysed production of a lubricant and surfactant formulation using a continuous solvent-free process

The transesterification of sunflower oil with a high oleic acid residue content (typically 83.5%) with butanol-1 by immobilised Lipozyme was carried out in a solvent free system and in a continuous way. During the first 6 h of reactor operation, a transition phase was observed, in which the main products were butyl ester and glycerol. This latter being insoluble in the reaction mixture, it is adsorbed onto the enzyme support thus leading to a decrease in enzyme performance. Step by step, less and less glycerol is produced and finally when glycerol is no longer produced a steady state is attained. The product composition is a mixture of butyl ester (65 molar%), monoglyceride (26 molar%), diglyceride (6 molar%) and residual triglyceride (3 molar%). This mixture has interesting lubricant and surfactant properties. The reactor was maintained without any loss in activity for a period of 3 months. This result is very different to that obtained using an organic solvent (n-hexane) which leads to a total loss of enzyme activity within a few hours.

Densitometric identification of triglycerides separated by reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography

A method to identify triglycerides, separated by reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography on silanized Kieselguhr G layers using densitometric data only, is described. Different triglyceride mixtures, containing components with partition numbers in the range 44-56, have been scanned. A linear relationship between the partition numbers of the zones and the maximum-to-maximum distances of the corresponding peaks, relative to the peak of the zones with partition number 48, has been found. The validity of this equation has been confirmed experimentally for triglycerides with partition numbers in the range 30-46. The method allows the identification of the triglyceride components of a mixture by their partition numbers, provided only one partition number is known or can be determined independently. An example concerning sunflower oil triglycerides is presented.