Safflower Oil: Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products, Sixth Edition, Six Volume Set

11
Safower Oil
Joseph Smith
1. HISTORY AND BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
Safower, Carthamus tinctorius L., has a long history of cultivation. Some would
class it as the worlds most ancient crop (1); others feel that olives, dates, and
sesame predate safower (2). Safower was produced in Egypt more than 4000
years ago (3), but the most likely area of its origin is in the Euphrates basin
(46). From there it apparently was introduced into Egypt and Ethiopia. Muslim
traders carried safower seeds across the northern coast of Africa and into present
day Spain, while Arabs introduced it into many parts of east Africa. By the six-
teenth century, safower was found in several parts of Europe. Turks carried saf-
ower into all parts of the Middle East, from where it spread to Iran,
Afghanistan, and India. From Afghanistan it spread into China more than 2000
years ago (7). It spread to Japan in the third century A.D. (8). Spanish and Portuguese
conquerors brought safower to the New World, and later emigrants from Portugal
and Russia did the same (9). For much of its history, safower was used primarily as
a source of dye, a food coloring, a cosmetic, or for medicinal purposes (7, 10, 11).
Dried safower orets are commonly used as an adulterant or substitute for colorful
saffron, Crocus sativus L., a much more costly spice (1214). Production of saf-
ower oil was carried out in the reign of Ptolemy II (10), and Pliny pointed out
that it could be used as a substitute for castor oil for nonedible purposes (15). While
it had become known as an edible oil during pre-Christian times in Mesopotamia
(16), it was only in more recent times that it began to be used in India as an
Baileys Industrial Oil and Fat Products, Sixth Edition, Six Volume Set.
Edited by Fereidoon Shahidi. Copyright # 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
491
edible oil, and of course, it was not until the middle of this century that it began to
enter world commerce, rst as an industrial oil and then as an edible product (17).
Because safower was introduced to many lands, it is known by a number of
different names, some of which are azafrancillo, bastard saffron, benihana, cartamo,
cnikos, false saffron, ghurtom, hung hua, kafsha, kahil, kajireh, kardi, khardam,
kusumba, onickus, safor, thistile saffron and ssuff (1, 3).
The safower plant is a member of the Compositae family. Other members of
this family are the artichoke, chrysanthemum, niger, and sunower. There are at
least 25 species of the Carthamus genus that grow in the wild (18), but only C. tinc-
torius, which we call safower, has been domesticated; some quantities of
C. oxyacantha have been gathered and used as oil or food sources in India and
Pakistan (19).
The safower plant as we know it resembles the Scottish thistle but has yellow,
orange, or red orets rather than the purple bloom of the thistle. However, the com-
mercial species of safower, C. tinctorius, does not become a weed. The plant
grows to a height of 30150 cm, develops many branches (unless affected by nat-
ural or articial environmental conditions), and develops a thickened taproot that
can extend down to 4 m.
Each branch terminates in an inorescence which is a dense capitulum of orets
(individual tubular corollas), commonly called a ower. Each oret ower pro-
trudes from a conical head surrounded by layers of bracts. The leaves, which
develop along the stalk and branches, and the outer layers of bracts usually are
spiny, although the types of safower grown for the production of dye or food
coloring are spineless, or nearly so. The seeds of the safower plant develop within
the head in a concentric pattern and are oblate with a attened top, usually white,
and about the size of a barley kernel (Figure 1) (20).
Safower is a plant of desert origins, as evidenced by its deep taproot, waxy
leaves, and relatively thick hull. It responds well to moisture and nitrogen. Its
seed has the ability to germinate almost immediately if exposed to moisture at
the proper temperature, unlike a sunower seed, which must go through a period
of dormancy before germination. The deep root and the many ne laterals that
extend from it have the ability to seek out water and nutrients deep in the soil.
These properties, while they allow safower to survive in periods of moisture short-
age also limit the areas of the world where safower can be cropped successfully.
Safower is normally planted after soil temperatures exceed 4.5
C and does not

begin growing fast until temperatures exceed 15
C. In the interim period, it goes

into a rosette stage after emergence. During this time, it establishes its deep root
system. As temperatures increase, the stem of the plant begins to elongate and
can grow as much as 2.5 cm per day, until maximum height is attained. Branches
and buds form until the plant owers, after 70 days or more (depending on tempera-
ture at planting time). Flowering can last from 10 days to 3 weeks, and the crop
usually is ready for harvest 45 days after time of full ower.
Flowering normally takes place during the warmest part of the growing season.
If a protracted period of rainfall occurs at the same time, or until harvest time,
unharvested safower seeds still in the head will germinate and begin to form
492 SAFFLOWER OIL
sprouts, which quickly can reduce oil content, increase color and FFA of the
contained oil, and eventually result in total loss of the crop. Therefore, to grow
safower successfully, it must be planted in regions that have a minimum 120
frost-free growing days, 300500 mm, of annual rainfall or irrigation, and that do
not experience rainfall during the period when safower is in ower or thereafter.
Most of the farming areas of the world receive some summer rains. If rain
occurs, safower has a chance of surviving, but this greatly increases the chance
of the plant being attacked by various leaf and head molds, which can limit yield
severely. So safower production is limited to areas such as Californias central val-
ley and southern Arizona; isolated areas of Mexico and Australia; and the drier
parts of China, India, and the Middle East. Areas where safower can be grown,
but with greater risk, are U.S. Northern and Great Plains, southern Idaho, and north-
ern Utah; much of northern Mexico; far northern Argentina; and the drier parts of
India and China (Figure 2).
Figure 1. a, Dr. Carl E. Claassen, father of the modern-day safower, among fully branched
safower. b, Safower blossom. c, Safower seed.
HISTORY AND BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION 493
Safower does not require any specialized equipment to be farmed successfully.
In developed parts of the world, 1570 kg of seed are planted per hectare, with the
lower ranges being planted either because moisture is a limiting factor or because
the crop is to be managed in cultivated rows. In areas with only 300400 mm of
annual rainfall, 15 kg of seed are planted with a grain drill, much as a crop of wheat
would be picked. In an area where plentiful irrigation water is available, a 20 kg of
seed may be planted per hectare. Seed may be planted in three or four drilled
or precision-planted rows on an elevated bed; the groups of rows are spaced
5060 mmapart. In areas where moisture is plentiful, 3570 kg of seed may be planted
per hectare; the higher rate is used to ensure that weeds do not gain a competitive
edge. Normal dates of planting in the United States range from December to March
in Arizona, January to March in Californias San Joaquin Valley, February to early
Figure 2. Areas in the United States that can support safower production.
494 SAFFLOWER OIL
May in Californias Sacramento Valley and last half of April to the rst half of May
in the rest of the country.
Good practice is to incorporate a triuran herbicide into medium to heavy loam
soil before planting; the seed is placed at a 35100-mm depth, depending on the
moisture level. A well-incorporated herbicide is necessary where weeds can be a
problem, because safower is not a good weed competitor in its early stages of
growth. Almost 120 units of nitrogen are necessary to attain maximum production.
For the crop to generate maximum yield, it must receive enough rainfall or have
enough moisture in the soil either through preirrigation or subsequent row irrigation
in order to maintain a bright green color and to prevent drying of its lower leaves
until it is past owering. As the plant approaches maturity, the owers dry, and the
entire crop attains a golden brown color.
Harvesting is accomplished with a standard grain combine generally set to run
internally at a slightly lower speed than for grain, which prevents cracking of the
seed. The combine should be set to cut only as deep as is necessary to capture all
heads. Harvesting should not begin until the seed has dried in the head to a level of
8% moisture content or lower. Most safower is harvested at a 45% moisture level.
In parts of India and China, much of the production is done by hand, and gen-
erally red-owered, lower oil content, spineless varieties are used. Young people
pass through the elds at time of owering and pluck the orets from the seed
heads, putting them into purses strung around their necks; the seeds are subse-
quently harvested when the crop has matured and dried, to recover oil. The orets
are carefully dried out of the sun and then used for food coloring or (in China and
Sri Lanka) for the production of either red or yellow dye. In India, some green saf-
ower plants are used as a vegetable (21). In Australia, India, and Pakistan the plant
is occasionally used as a grazing crop or fodder for cattle (2224). After harvesting,
the remaining stubble consists of hollow stalks, dried leaves, empty heads, and
some empty hulls or immature seeds. Sheep and cattle were allowed to graze on
this stubble in the United States during the 1950s; today such grazing is conned
to occasional employment by sheep ranchers. Most elds in Mexico are grazed by
cattle after harvest.
Until the twentieth century, safower tended to be a local crop. No effort was
expended to nd species that had better oil content, since most of the interest cen-
tered around the crop as a medicinal or dye stuff source.
In 1925, the U.S. Department of Agriculture obtained samples of safower seed
from the then U.S.S.R. and India, and over the next 10 years various agricultural
experiment stations and some farmer cooperatives conducted trials. In 1935, the
USDA produced a circular summarizing the trial results; it concluded that safower
had possibilities as an oil seed crop in the northern Great Plains and far west (25). A
Montana farmer conducted trials with safower beginning in 1928 and contacted
paint companies, researchers, and others who might have an interest in safower
oil (26). Several favorable reports ensued (2729). In 1937, a comprehensive report
based on seed obtained from Montana and elsewhere praised safower oils good
properties (30). Others in Europe had earlier written favorable evaluations of
safower as a drying oil (31) and as a source of high protein meal (32). In 1947,
a comprehensive report on safower production and drying oil capability was
published (33).
Cargill, Inc. contracted for and processed about 1000 t of safower seed in the
U.S. northern Great Plains during 1947 and 1948; the company concluded that the
crop was not sound at that time (34). Two men and one company provided the real
impetus for getting safower established as a crop in the United States: Claassen,
Knowles, and the Pacic Vegetable Oil Corp. (PVO).
Claassen was employed in 1941 as a research agronomist by the University of
Nebraska to assist the newly created Chemurgy Project in evaluating crops that
could become signicant contributors to the state of Nebraska (35, 36). After test-
ing many new crops, he settled on safower and began a breeding program (9).
Claassen found that most safower introductions were in the 2229% oil content
range but found introductions from Sudan and Egypt that ranged from 33 to 37% oil
content (37). Claassen began to do selection and breeding work, and by 1949, he
had released several lines and described cultural methods for obtaining relatively
consistent yields (3741). The most important line released, N-852, had an oil con-
tent of 3234% and good yielding ability. Several safower processing companies
were formed in Colorado and Nebraska to commercialize the new releases, but they
quickly failed (34).
Claassens work came to the attention of Knowles at the University of California
at Davis. Claassen had sent portions of his new lines to a number of western coop-
erators for testing, and results that Knowles obtained were quite exciting (42).
Claassen was encouraged by Hoagland, who was by then living in California, to
come out for a visit to see the potential that safower had in that state. Claassen
visited California in 1949 and traveled to various oil processing companies. Claas-
sen was convinced to resign from the university and join Hoagland in starting up a
safower planting seed and promotion concern called Western Oilseeds Co. (9).
Initially, Oil Seed Products Co. of Fresno, California, displayed the most interest
in Claassen and Hoaglands work, but it soon became apparent that PVO could offer
much more help because of its strong background in the production and sales of
industrial oils. The primary interest in safower oil at the time was coming from
paint companies, whereas most oil millers in California were suppliers to the
food industry. The N-852 variety, although it had good yields, was susceptible to
phytophthora root rot under irrigation. Thus, the rst tries at growing safower
in California in 1950 resulted in severe losses, because of the stress of irrigation.
This turned away many growers and millers in Californias cottonseed production
areas, which helped PVO, because its mill was farther north. Claassen was soon
joined by Hoffman, his former assistant at Nebraska; they formed an alliance
with PVO. After Hoagland departed after a dispute, Pacic Oilseeds, Inc. (POI)
was formed, jointly owned by PVO, Claassen, and Hoffman (34).
The combination of PVO and POI formed a near monopoly, dominating the saf-
ower business until 1962. Approximately 95% of the safower oil sold during that
period went to the paint, varnish, and coatings market in which PVO had the stron-
gest hand. POIs tie with PVO meant that only growers who contracted their saf-
ower crop with PVO got the best seed as new varieties began to be released. This
496 SAFFLOWER OIL
system was the real key to PVOs dominance, which was probably the rst time that
a nonperishable crop was grown under contract. Growers were given contracts that
guaranteed a oor price for the entire production from a given acreage, provided the
best planting seed available for cash or credit, and offered eld service and advice
free of charge. In addition to the oor price the grower received a bonus based on
PVOs prots in marketing the crop.
In ensuing years, PVO began to offer long-term contracts under which the
grower was paid 50% of PVOs safower prot as measured by the rms auditors
and the grower committed his or her entire production of safower to PVO for 37
years. POI was also offered bonuses, reecting 50% of the value of any increase in
oil or protein levels in new seeds it developed. In turn, PVO went to great lengths to
keep Knowles and various farm advisers and university ofcials interested in saf-
ower. Banks, truckers, and warehouses were fully informed about PVOs future
plans and how the safower business was doing. In addition to making growers,
researchers, and POI feel that they were part of a partnership aimed at improving
safowers lot, PVO kept oil and meal prices as low as possible to encourage mar-
ket development. Buyers were also offered long-term requirements contracts that
allowed them to purchase oil more than 1 year ahead of delivery date and, in
fact, committed both parties to an assurance that the customer would always be
able to obtain his or her full requirements. To some consumers, PVO also offered
technical assistance agreements wherein a chemist or engineer was sent to the cus-
tomers plant to help solve processing problems and nd new, protable markets for
safower products. As markets grew, PVO expanded with them, enlarging proces-
sing capability in California, building new oil mills in Montana and Nebraska, and
expanding production to Spain, Mexico, and Australia (34).
Coinciding with this development was the publication of Calories Dont Count
(43), which became an instant best-seller in 1961. The book advocated a diet that
featured daily capsulized doses of safower oil. Medical research was beginning to
demonstrate the close relationship between diet and heart disease. Eminent
researchers began to show the relationship of cholesterol to heart disease and,
more important, to show that polyunsaturates such as safower oil would lower
blood serum cholesterol for many people (4446).
A further development enlarging the market for safower oil was the increasing
importance of the Japanese vegetable oil market. Japan became a consumer of U.S.
safower seed because of a uke in the duty and quota structures set up after World
War II. A duty of 20% was established to protect Japanese soybean producers from
cheap imports. To be consistent, this duty was applied to a list of other oilseeds in
addition to soybeans. Imports were also controlled under a very tight quota system
to protect Japanese foreign exchange. But the framers of the duty structure were
unaware of safower, which was thus omitted from the list. Japanese oil mills
became large clients for duty-free safower seed, until the duties were gradually
reduced as Japan became a major importer of soybeans and rapeseed (3). In the
United States, safower oil was being employed primarily in the coatings industry,
but in Japan it was employed primarily as an edible oil. Safower became quite
popular in tempura oil blends.
During the early years of increasing exports of safower seed to Japan, PVO did
the lions share of the business and was able to tie up a majority of the Japanese
importers through a series of long-term requirements contracts wherein PVO agreed
to supply the Japanese mills increasing needs each year for an agreement to buy
exclusively from PVO. The increasing Japanese demand and the growing popularity
of safower oil in the United States fueled PVOs expansion in production rst to
the western Great Plains and then to Mexico, Spain, and Australia. PVO began to
lose its monopoly position in 1957 with the public release of the Gila variety of
safower seed (47, 48). This seed had a good yield and oil content and was also
resistant to phytophthora root rot. As the seed became available, practically every
cottonseed milling company in California and Arizona was able to become a pro-
ducer and supplier of edible safower oil.
Up to that point, safower seed production had been on a continued upward spir-
al in the United States, which carried through to 1963. Safower oil had been price
competitive with soybean oil, particularly in the western United States and Japan,
since soybean oil produced in the Midwest was at a freight disadvantage. The intro-
duction into California of new varieties of wheat developed by the Borlaug program
in Mexico allowed California farmers to achieve increasingly better wheat yields.
In the 1950s, safower was easily able to compete with wheat or barley as a rotation
crop for Californias rice or cotton farmers, but once wheat yields increased and
safower yields remained constant, safower seed prices (and consequently oil
prices) were forced to rise to compete for the farmers favor.
Rising prices for safower and increasingly better water-based paints formulated
from petroleum-based polymers rather than vegetable oils quickly cut industrial
consumption of safower oil. PVO attempted to stem this tide by introducing pro-
ducts that combined safower oil with water emulsion technologies, but it was too
late (4951).
The polyunsaturated bubble almost burst when the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration began attacking reners claims about the ability of these products to
reduce incidence of heart disease and lower cholesterol, but subsequent supportive
statements by the American Medical Association and the American Heart Associa-
tion softened the effect of the attack.
Increasingly competitive supplies of the former U.S.S.R. and U.S. sunower
seeds and oil helped erode the international market for U.S. safower producers.
Safower oil has the highest level of polyunsaturation of the commercial oils,
and the market has recently stabilized in the United States, northern Europe, and
Japan. In Japan in particular, safower oil has achieved an increasingly larger share
of the gift pack market, wherein fancy tins of safower oil are exchanged during the
summer and Christmas gift-giving seasons.
Industrial use of safower oil has declined to 23% of the total market.
Conjugated safower oil (52) competes with dehydrated castor or tung oils and
very high quality alkyds. Table 1 illustrates the rise and fall of safower supply
and disappearance in the United States in comparison with major and minor
crops (53).
498 SAFFLOWER OIL
TABLE 1. Edible Fats and Oils: U.S. Supply and Disappearance, 10
6
lb.
Item 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
a
2003
b
Stocks October
a
Coconut 277 188 251 164 163 84 150 393 152 136 260 227 148
Corn 138 196 150 118 241 116 129 102 135 267 117 104 114
Cottonseed 137 78 81 106 82 94 66 79 76 49 93 39 40
Lard 24 27 26 34 24 23 20 40 21 18 14 10 5
Palm 53 44 33 35 15 31 46 35 48 48 61 70 42
Palm kernel 53 49 88 73 55 22 51 64 73 49 155 128 50
Peanut
c
25 51 50 25 40 65 86 41 40 32 31 32 50
Safower 28 28 18 31 21 44 27 38 48 36 21 17 19
Soybean 1,786 2,239 1,555 1,103 1,137 2,015 1,520 1,382 1,520 1,993 2,767 2,359 1,486
Sunower 47 100 56 65 82 147 93 60 121 157 136 23 25
Canola 41 71 67 137 54 77 65 112 169 206 110 52 55
Tallow, edible 41 33 41 36 52 34 48 46 43 40 49 24 35
Imports
Coconut 841 1,163 999 1,100 874 1,188 1,438 791 926 1,115 1,093 860 970
Corn 5 7 7 10 11 14 28 42 18 27 61 65 65
Cottonseed 18 38 26 0 0 0 0 48 8 0 0 22 0
Lard 2 3 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 3 6 10 10
Olive 216 253 262 260 227 304 333 355 397 455 455 485 540
Palm 220 267 368 218 236 322 282 284 345 399 490 425 440
Palm kernel 342 302 304 280 262 392 359 401 393 351 330 470 475
Peanut
c
1 0 11 4 5 14 10 73 12 79 39 70 70
Canola 815 861 902 938 1,086 1,075 1,088 1,060 1,139 1,193 1,108 929 1,215
Safower 22 15 16 26 35 30 51 51 33 34 40 43 45
Soybean 1 10 68 17 95 53 60 83 83 73 46 50 85
Sunower 9 0 7 1 2 22 8 5 4 8 36 60 5
Tallow, edible 6 10 15 18 8 5 2 3 10 32 7 11 10
Production
Corn 1,821 1,878 1,906 2,227 2,139 2,231 2,335 2,374 2,501 2,403 2,461 2,453 2,650
Cottonseed 1,280 1,126 1,119 1,312 1,229 1,216 1,224 832 939 847 876 725 865
TABLE 1 (Continued)
Item 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
a
2003
b
Lard 1,016 1,011 1,015 1,052 1,013 979 1,065 1,106 1,069 1,050 1,080 1,075 1,100
Peanut
c
356 286 212 314 321 221 176 145 229 179 230 286 219
Canola 32 49 406 299 355 342 451 548 617 641 585 541 629
Safower 69 87 111 115 127 103 115 111 91 88 76 89 91
Soybean 14,345 13,778 13,951 15,613 15,240 15,752 18,143 18,078 17,825 18,420 18,898 18,435 17,020
Sunower 911 730 580 1,165 860 840 959 1,177 1,046 873 673 320 595
Tallow, edible 1,515 1,414 1,535 1,550 1,559 1,407 1,517 1,677 1,792 1,764 1,932 2,075 2,000
Exports
Coconut 22 0 19 18 12 12 6 11 14 8 7 8 10
Corn 566 712 717 865 977 988 1,118 989 970 951 1,172 890 900
Cottonseed 269 184 248 329 221 232 208 111 141 131 150 110 115
Lard 131 129 119 140 94 103 122 140 189 93 90 105 100
Olive 20 15 11 21 24 21 19 15 12 9 10 12 12
Palm kernel 2 9 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Palm 7 7 7 13 20 9 11 11 11 11 10 11 10
Peanut
c
151 52 61 97 108 21 13 10 18 14 8 42 19
Canola 15 16 76 153 147 295 349 272 284 187 255 166 157
Safower 73 65 75 93 122 83 83 92 51 35 37 37 40
Soybean 1,644 1,461 1,531 2,683 992 2,033 3,079 2,372 1,375 1,401 2,519 2,250 850
Sunower 471 586 450 978 628 709 815 800 630 545 453 110 200
Tallow, edible
d
333 306 316 277 241 181 236 322 224 338 475 485 490
Domestic disappearance
Coconut 910 1,084 1,067 1,083 941 1,111 1,189 1,021 927 983 1,119 930 958
Corn 1,202 1,220 1,228 1,250 1,298 1,244 1,271 1,394 1,417 1,630 1,363 1,618 1,804
Cottonseed 1,088 975 873 1,007 996 1,012 1,004 772 833 672 780 636 750
Lard 885 886 890 924 922 880 925 987 886 964 1,000 985 990
Olive 216 253 262 260 227 304 333 355 397 455 455 473 528
Palm 223 271 359 225 201 298 282 260 335 375 471 425 427
Palm kernel 344 254 315 295 293 362 344 390 414 243 355 511 458
Peanut 179 236 187 206 193 194 217 208 233 244 260 296 275
Canola 801 898 1,162 1,165 1,271 1,134 1,143 1,287 1,435 1,744 1,496 1,301 1,687
Safower 15 47 40 57 17 67 73 59 86 102 89 93 95
Soybean 12,248 13,012 12,939 12,913 13,465 14,267 15,262 15,652 16,059 16,318 16,833 17,108 16,522
Sunower 396 188 129 171 168 207 186 320 385 357 370 268 385
Tallow, edible 1,197 1,109 1,239 1,275 1,345 1,218 1,286 1,360 1,581 1,449 1,488 1,590 1,515
a
Preliminary and estimated.
b
ERS and WAOB forecast.
c
August-July year beginning 1982.
d
Disappearance, as dened by the USDA-ERS, means beginning food stocks, production, and imports minus exports, shipments to U.S. territories, and ending stocks.
Source: Bureau of the Census.
In 1957, scientists in Australia and California independently reported a mutation
that came to be known as oleic safower (5456). This mutation occurred naturally
and produces a plant and seed that look exactly like linoleic safower, except for an
oil whose fatty acid distribution is a mirror image of linoleic safower oil (Table 2).
The initial oleic safower variety released by Knowles, UC-1 (57), was lower in oil
content and had a poorer yield than conventional varieties available at the time.
This meant that oleic safower oil was initially sold at a premium. But agronomic
research has since produced varieties that equal or even exceed normal safower in
yield and that are comparable in oil content.
Oleic safower oil interested buyers in Japan and the United States when it was
rst commercially releasedin Japan as an ingredient for a new mayonnaise and in
the United States as a replacement for peanut oil in most of Frito-Lays western
plants. These markets evaporated, however, when producers were forced to raise
prices because of increasing competition with wheat for western farmland. The
development of markets for oleic safower oil has been a constant series of steps
forward and then back. The oil has enjoyed good success as an ingredient in arti-
cial baby milks (because of its excellent stability), in production of premium chips
and snacks (again because of its stability and good frying characteristics), in the
production of cocoa butter substitutes, and as an oil for blending with olive oil
because of its similar fatty acid structure.
In recent years as more research has focused on the role of monounsaturates ver-
sus polyunsaturates and their effects on cholesterol reduction, oleic safower oil has
begun to receive more attention. In the United States, Saffola Grocery Products has
introduced a grown-without-pesticides salad oil in which linoleic safower oil has
been replaced by the oleic type. In Japan, several bottlers have begun to feature
oleic safower oil in their gift-pack campaign both as an individually identied pro-
duct and also in blends with the linoleic type.
The emergence of countries other than the United States as exporters of saf-
ower products became increasingly important. Since 1986, Mexico has been
able to take an increasing percentage of its total supply to world markets, generally
at lower prices than U.S. oils. Earlier, Mexico was limited by government controls
over its exports and poorer varieties of planting seed. These restraints have been
eliminated.
TABLE 2. Typical Fatty Acid Composition of Linoleic
and Oleic Safower Oils (%).
Fatty Acid Normal Oleic
Palmitic 5.25 4.5
Stearic 1.50 1.5
Oleic 15.00 77.00
Linoleic 77.00 15.00
Others 1.25 2.00
502 SAFFLOWER OIL
Argentina is able to produce safower at prices similar to sunower oil prices
and also has access to good U.S. planting seed varieties. However, Argentina is
able to sell at low prices only by planting safower in the far north, immediately
after soybeans are harvested. If timing is perfect, a good yield can result. If soybean
harvest is delayed, safower is also delayed; thus the harvest may be pushed into
the rainy season, causing sprouting and potential loss of the crop.
Recently, Australia has transferred most of its safower production from
Queensland and New South Wales to Victoria and the south, where rainfall is
more reliable. Australia has not been able to produce a sustained, reliable produc-
tion for world markets. Severe quarantine laws have not allowed more modern vari-
eties of safower planting seed to be imported; thus most Australian seed is quite
low in oil content.
China has begun to produce some safower oil. Chinese varieties have tradition-
ally been under 30% oil content, since the bulk of the research there was aimed at
improved seed and oret yields. Safower produced in the far west and northern
parts of China is high in linoleic levels, and Japan has continually imported small
quantities of Chinese seed because of this. With Chinas emergence into the worlds
economic and political venues, its safower could become more important as it pro-
duces or imports better varieties of seed and improves its internal transportation
system.
Canada produces limited amounts of safower, which is aimed primarily at bird
feed rather than oil production. Even more so than in the U.S. northern Great Plains,
Canadas producers face a tough battle trying to squeeze in a long enough growing
season.
The worlds largest acreage of safower is found in India, and Indian scientists
have undoubtedly published more details about safower production than
scientists in any other country. India is tying to encourage more safower
production, but sunower offers more hope there because of its resistance to
rain. India basically consumes all of the safower it produces, and this is unlikely
to change.
Spain used to be an important producer of safower, but sunower hybrids
have shown much more promise, because of their tolerance of summer rains.
Pseudomonas almost wiped out safower production in Spain, and current EEC
policy (which offers subsidies to sunower producers but ignores safower) does
not leave safower much chance (58).
The FAOs estimate of world safower production for the period 19501992 is
shown in Table 3. U.S. safower acreage fell 13% in 2001 to 188,000 acres. Below
average yields also contributed to a cut in safowerseed production to 242 million
pounds, making it the smallest crop since 1983. As a result, crush and exports of
safowerseed in 2001/02 fell to 190 million and 43 million pounds, respectively.
For safowerseed oil, a recovery in U.S. shipments to Japan boosted 2001/02
exports to 40 million pounds (53). Safowers future will continue to be limited
by its relatively high cost of production, unless hybrids are developed that can be
produced cheaply.
TABLE 3. World Safower Production by Crop Year (Year of Harvest/Milling) (59, 60).
a,b
United World
Argentina Australia Ethiopia India Mexico Spain States Total

Year (ha) (t) (ha) (t) (ha) (t) (ha) (t) (ha) (t) (ha) (t) (ha) (t) (ha) (t)
1950 44 19 370 50 30 16 458 91
1951 45 20 390 53 11 9 460 88
1952 45 21 400 56 23 24 482 107
1953 45 21 406 57 26 25 491 109
1954 45 22 410 57 10 13 479 91
1955 45 22 415 60 23 35 497 122
1956 1 46 23 420 55 36 66 517 150
1957 1 46 23 425 60 37 66 523 155
1958 3 2 48 24 430 60 65 67 560 159
1959 5 2 48 24 433 63 99 113 599 209
1960 2 1 50 25 435 61 26 32 131 152 658 278
1961 4 2 51 26 440 66 33 41 166 160 709 305
1962 2 2 52 26 445 67 37 47 217 334 768 486
1963 8 5 54 27 450 68 36 47 223 358 761 514
1964 19 13 55 27 455 62 36 47 147 255 710 413
1965 24 10 56 28 460 72 59 80 146 262 746 459
1966 38 25 57 29 462 69 165 236 55 30 182 304 955 701
1967 42 16 59 30 478 72 100 149 70 56 181 311 925 643
1968 19 10 60 32 513 78 86 102 55 39 83 169 812 441
1969 11 4 61 34 578 94 145 209 11 5 113 212 939 566
1970 28 9 62 36 580 142 175 288 14 8 102 180 968 673
1971 2 1 34 15 64 39 588 154 265 511 22 13 115 227 1126 891
1972 5 3 11 4 63 24 598 131 199 271 16 8 110 208 1039 676
1973 7 5 12 7 64 24 423 82 198 298 34 20 95 156 874 615
1974 8 8 36 31 64 30 614 191 192 272 34 17 77 150 1054 713
1975 4 3 40 18 64 25 648 212 363 532 34 16 84 175 1269 1001
1976 8 6 13 6 64 30 674 238 185 240 36 20 37 69 1057 632
1977 3 2 39 26 64 30 683 220 404 518 29 13 113 171 1350 989
1978 2 2 75 58 64 30 707 188 429 616 15 15 145 186 1443 1108
1979 2 1 54 30 64 30 703 209 528 635 17 14 152 205 1516 1129
1980 1 1 18 8 65 31 733 279 416 480 20 20 84 111 1340 936
1981 1 1 33 20 65 31 720 335 391 372 12 4 65 101 1289 870
1982 1 1 12 20 66 32 749 421 189 221 20 13 72 117 1114 832
1983 2 2 55 31 66 32 782 396 349 277 19 13 35 92 1320 853
1984 3 2 44 32 66 32 831 501 227 209 20 14 89 124 1290 894
1985 3 2 44 28 66 32 870 497 190 180 19 16 88 110 1288 876
1986 14 10 30 19 67 33 911 348 204 161 15 13 148 147 1385 737
1987 15 11 38 25 67 33 892 353 200 219 12 11 107 155 1331 811
1988 15 11 46 41 68 34 1052 462 200 247 18 13 95 146 1498 960
1989 50 33 33 21 68 34 816 445 150 142 7 6 91 159 1219 850
1990 50 35 19 10 69 34 842 487 157 159 1 1 108 139 1248 873
1991 50 35 37 24 69 35 821 327 94 88 84 115 1160 620
1992 50 35 34 32 69 35 831 350 80 82 136 148 1199 690
a
In units of 1000.
b
Some data from PVO, Agricom International, and Oilseeds International, Ltd.
504 SAFFLOWER OIL
2. PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
2.1. Safower Seed
Safower seed (technically an achene) (61) consists of a tough brous hull that pro-
tects a kernel comprised of two cotyledons and an embryo. Applewhite (62)
reported that hulls make up 1859% of the seed weight (62), Weiss (63) character-
ized normal hulled seeds as 3849%, and Li et al. (64) noted percentages of
2587.5%. This diversity also shows up in seed weight per 1000 seeds (14105 g),
oil content (11.4847.45%), and fatty acid distribution (linoleic acid, 11.13
85.6%; oleic acid, 6.7481.84%, stearic acid, 0.014.88%, and palmitic acid,
2.129.03%) (57).
Safower seeds are normally cream to white, but since 1960, breeding has
resulted in great variation in color, ranging from normal hull to thin hull (which
tend to show part of the underlying colored layers) to types with gray, purple, or
brown-striped hulls. Most of this research has been aimed at creating a thinner
hull to increase oil content (Table 4). Although reduction of the hull fraction
TABLE 4. Analyses of U.S. Safower Seed (65).
a
Type Oil Protein Fiber
Analyses of whole seed
Gila 38.1 16.7 22.3
U-5 38.5 17.2 21.1
US-10 36.8 19.4 22.3
Frio 40.1 15.4 20.8
Thick-hull hybrid 37.8 17.3 21.5
Brown striped 47.7 20.3 11.7
Pigmentless brown striped 42.8 22.5 13.6
Thin hull 47.2 21.1 11.2
Analyses of hull
Gila 3.2 4.3 57.1
U-5 2.2 5.0 58.4
US-10 1.4 3.6 60.0
Frio 2.7 4.1 60.4
Brown striped 5.7 8.4 46.9
Thin hull 5.1 10.0 45.3
Analyses of kernel
Gila 60.9 24.9 1.5
U-5 61.8 25.4 1.5
US-10 59.0 29.4 1.5
Frio 64.0 23.0 1.0
Brown-striped 52.7 24.8 0.9
Thin-hull 62.6 25.5 0.9
a
All analyses are percentages on a moisture-free basis.
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES 505
increases valuable oil and protein percentages, too much reduction can produce
other problems. Brown-striped seeds have a distinctly musty odor (66). Thin hull
types can create harvesting, storage, handling, and processing problems (67, 68),
although the more gentle combine harvesters in use for the last decade can probably
deal with the harvesting worry. Brown-striped seeds also were shown to contain
colorless precursors in the hull and kernel that could create dark extracted oil
(68). Ways to remove the precursors and color bodies have been published (68, 69).
Three phosphatides have been identied that are responsible for color formation
from oil extracted from the kernel of safower seed: phosphatidyl ethanolamine,
phosphatidyl myoinositol, and phosphatidyl choline (7072).
Attempts have been made to produce commercial hybrids of safower seed by
exploiting heterosis to increase seed or oil content yields (7376). In addition, many
Indian scientists have published on the hybrid theory of safower. POI marketed a
near hybrid for a short while, which exhibited oil contents in excess of 50%, but it
was not popular with growers and proved difcult to manage in the oil mill. Cargill
marketed hybrids in India for several years. They were initially popular with
growers because of 25% higher yields than standard varieties, but high production
costs and 25% lower oil content caused the program to be phased out. Other hybrid
work (76) was based on white-owered genetic male-sterile germplasm (7779),
which in turn resulted from colchicine treatment of an introduction from
Afghanistan.
Oleic types of safower are produced primarily in the United States and to a
minor degree in Mexico. The commonly available types exhibit oleic fatty acid levels
in the 7681% range. Linoleic level decreases proportionally as oleic level increases.
Safower seeds in the Northern Hemisphere tend to be higher in linoleic acid at
TABLE 5. Characteristics of Commercial Safower Production.
Protein Linoleic
Country or Oil Moisture (% in Solvent (% in Total
Region Content (%) Extracted Meal) Fatty Acids)
United States
California 39.544 45 25 7578
Arizona 3941.5 45 25 7278
Northern Great Plains
a
2541 59 24 7681
Utah and Idaho 3842 57 25 7678
Canada 3235 59 24 7681
Mexico
San Jose and Quiriego 3038 512 24 6070
Normal types 3537 512 24 7277
U.S. types 3539 612 2324 7277
Argentina 3536 612 2324 7076
India 32 78 2124 7278
China 2832 78 2528 7682
Australia 3538 59 24 7076
a
Wide range caused by loss of oil content in years of early frost. High, basis-S-541 variety; normal range for
local varieties is 3538%.
506 SAFFLOWER OIL
more northern latitudes because cooler temperatures are usually experienced at and
after the time of owering. Similarly, oleic levels increase in safower exposed to
higher temperatures. Oil contents of commercially available oleic types tend to be
slightly lower than linoleic types, but eld yields are equal or superior to linoleic
types. Tables 5 to 8 list some of the characteristics of safower seeds.
2.2. Safower Oil
Normal safower oil is pale yellow to golden and has a slightly nutty avor. Table 9
summarizes the important chemical and physical characteristics of U.S. safower
oil. Safower oil exhibits the highest level of linoleic fatty acid of any commer-
cially available oil. This high level, combined with an absence of linolenic
fatty acid, is what has made safower oil attractive to consumers, initially as a
TABLE 6. Mineral and Trace Element Composition of Some Indian Oilseeds (80).
a
Factor Sesame Mustard Groundnut Safower
Number of varieties 6 8 19 6
Ash (g %) 6.6 0.02 4.7 0.21 3.3 0.09 2.1 0.15
Phosphorus (mg/100 g) 872 35 767 41 500 8 367 10
Calcium (mg/100 g) 1232 28 318 25 77 6 214 28
Magnesium (mg/100 g) 521 42 273 18 239 4 241 18
Iron (mg/100 g) 9.3 0.43 7.9 0.34 2.5 0.23 4.6 0.13
Zinc (mg/g) 122 21 48 3.7 30 1.6 52 3.3
Manganese (mg/g) 13.2 0.26 25.6 4.09 11.0 0.76 11.0 0.78
Copper (mg/g) 22.9 1.70 8.3 0.44 9.0 0.53 15.8 1.54
Molybdenum (mg/g) 2.02 0.068 0.89 0.105 1.66 0.173 0.54 0.08
Chromium (m/g) 0.87 0.052 0.63 0.058 0.48 6.031 0.45 0.060
a
All values are mean SEM for dry weight of the sample.
TABLE 7. Identication and Distribution of Sugars in Safower Hull and Kernel (81).
Percent Sugars
Percent on Defatted
Safower Sugars Distribution Percent Basis
Component Present of Sugars Sugars (calculated)
Kernel Uronic sugar glycosides 14.3 0.43
Rafnose 35.8 1.08
Sucrose 46.9 1.42
Galactinol 3.0 0.09
Total 3.02 7.74
Hull Uronic sugar glycosides 38.9 0.37
Rafnose 6.8 0.06
Sucrose 22.6 0.21
Galactinol 2.7 0.025
D-Gluose 14.6 0.14
D-Fructose 14.2 0.13
Total 0.94 0.79
TABLE 8. Amino Acids of Safower Seed (65).
a
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Defatted, hand scparated
kernels
Normal hull seed
Commercial varieties
Gila 66.4 2.72 3.34 2.42 9.52 9.33 2.96 4.24 20.55 3.80 5.46 4.03 1.86 5.44 1.59 3.84 5.97 2.91 4.20 1.15 5.46
U-5 66.4 2.83 2.43 2.39 9.74 9.40 3.17 4.38 19.69 3.56 5.38 4.06 1.80 5.43 1.75 3.83 6.13 3.03 4.21 0.93 5.44
US-10 71.7 2.63 2.28 2.42 9.69 9.47 2.84 4.16 19.97 3.87 5.09 3.90 1.62 5.24 1.28 3.53 5.87 2.86 4.21 0.90 5.43
Frio 65.6 2.83 2.44 2.40 9.32 9.24 3.04 4.19 19.49 3.78 5.43 4.03 5.49 3.86 5.98 2.91 4.15
Experimental varieties
Normal hull histearic 74.4 2.53 2.50 2.59 9.76 9.23 2.57 3.72 20.14 3.52 4.92 3.67 5.45 3.76 5.85 2.78 3.96
Normal hull hi-oleic 69.0 2.83 2.42 2.42 9.66 9.17 2.86 4.01 19.82 3.58 5.11 3.81 5.25 3.70 5.79 2.74 4.06
Normal hull equal 71.9 2.61 2.42 2.48 10.09 9.44 2.92 4.37 21.24 3.92 5.19 3.95 5.36 3.76 6.12 3.03 4.16
oleic-linoleic
Other normal hull 58.3 2.91 2.60 2.59 10.32 10.29 3.24 4.74 22.39 3.83 5.48 4.51 2.01 5.96 1.69 4.15 6.57 3.16 4.53 1.08 5.17
mutants
Seeds with low hull content
Pigmenticas, striped hull 62.2 2.68 2.51 2.61 10.19 10.25 3.06 4.72 20.45 3.74 5.65 4.39 2.04 5.81 1.61 4.02 6.51 3.09 4.50 1.15 5.42
Brown-striped hull 65.9 2.73 2.41 2.46 9.67 9.69 2.96 4.34 20.50 3.88 5.47 4.10 1.81 5.47 1.61 3.89 6.05 3.00 4.90 1.08 5.45
Thin hull 67.8 2.75 2.39 2.45 9.58 9.40 3.01 4.27 20.12 3.84 5.36 4.06 5.46 3.88 6.07 3.04 4.29
Hulls
Gilla 4.0 2.86 1.22 2.50 2.87 6.38 3.11 4.36 7.82 3.37 4.53 3.29 4.34 3.14 4.62 1.16 3.25
Brown-striped hull 8.1 3.21 1.58 2.15 3.43 7.56 3.39 4.75 8.80 3.78 5.01 3.79 1.65 4.79 1.04 3.47 5.09 1.46 3.70 0.43 5.48
Thin hull 10.2 3.07 1.33 2.30 3.09 7.30 3.03 4.48 7.78 3.26 4.46 3.32 4.31 3.15 4.58 1.52 3.47
Safower meal
Commercial partially 48.0 2.84 2.32 2.42 8.69 9.13 3.10 4.36 19.34 3.93 5.46 4.17 1.70 5.46 1.62 3.97 6.13 2.48 4.32 5.45
decor-ticated, normal
Experimental undercorti- 38.1 2.63 2.23 2.56 8.34 9.22 2.93 4.17 18.56 3.68 5.27 3.97 1.63 5.32 1.38 3.80 5.86 2.39 4.29 5.41
cated, brown-striped hull
a
In g/16g nitrogen.
quick-drying oil that could produce lms that would not yellow with age and, more
recently, as an edible oil with the highest available level of polyunsaturation. As an
edible oil, the high level of unsaturation also creates problems. Home consumers
using safower oil for frying must be careful to clean pans quickly after use or a
tough varnish lm results, which is difcult to remove. Fresh safower salad-grade
oil has excellent avor and odor characteristics, and because it lacks linolenic fatty
acid, it does not display the shy or beany odors sometimes associated with poorly
rened soybean oil. Unfortunately, it does have a relatively short shelf life (typi-
cally 912 h AOM), which means the oil should be kept cool after the bottle is
opened to maintain freshness.
Oleic safower oil displays most of the same characteristics as the linoleic type,
except for its fatty acid structure (see Table 2). It has been noted that a blend of
linoleic and oleic edible oils would improve the dietary value of commercial saf-
ower oil (83). Blends of this type began to be marketed in Japan in 1990 and
appear to be achieving good acceptance by the public.
TABLE 9. Physical and Chemical Characteristics of U.S. Safower Oil (82).
Usual Range
Characteristic of California Oil Minimum
a
Maximum
a
Physical
Color (Gardner) 810 11
b
Color after heat bleaching, 315.5
C (600
F) 23
b
4
b
Color, rened, bleached, deodorized
c
0.51.0 red
d
15 yellow and 1.5 red
d
Specic gravity, 25/25
C 0.9190.924
Refractive index, n
p
25
C 1.4731.476
Titer,

C 1517
Flash point,

C (
F) 148.8(300) 121.1(250)
Chemical
Free fatty acids, % as oleic 0.150.6 2
0.030.05
d
0.05
d
Saponication value 186194
Iodine value (Wijs) 141147 140 155
Unsaponiable, % 0.30.6 1.5
Peroxide value (at time of shipment) 01.0
d
1.0
d
Moisture and volatile, %
e
0.030.1 0.8
Insoluble impurities, %
f
0.010.1 0.3
Moisture and impurities, % 0.050.1
b
0.1
b
Principal fatty acids, % TFA
Palmitic 46
Stearic 12
Oleic 1612
Linoleic 7579 72
Linolenic Nil
a
Per NIOP trading rules.
b
Nonbreak grade, NIOP.
c
AOCS method Cc 13b-45.
d
Edible grade, NIOP.
e
AOCS method, Ca 2d-25.
f
AOCS method Ca 3-46.
A great variation in fatty acid, oil, and protein levels occurs in the world collec-
tion of safower seeds. Knowless pioneering work in understanding and subse-
quently nding ways to modify these differences inspired many researchers to
publish extensively on this subject (34, 84). Recently, most research on safower
oil modication has been performed in the United States by private planting seed
companies and by the Sidney Experiment Station of Montana State University; lit-
tle has been published.
A few studies have reported on the location of the fatty acids on the triglyceride
in varying ways. One study used argentation TLC with lipase hydrolysis on a sam-
ple of safower oil from Kenya that contained 10% total saturated fatty acids. It
was found that 2 mol% was congured with two saturated acyl chains (S) and
one unsaturated acyl chain (U), 26 mol % had a SU
2
conguration, and 72 mol
% had a U
3
conguration. It was also reported that 3 mol % had two double bonds
attached, 3 mol % had three double bonds, 23 mol % had four double bonds, 19 mol
% had ve double bonds, and 47 mol % had six or seven double bonds (85).
Another study measured the position of linoleic acid on the triglyceride in a study
on hydrogenation (86). It was found that 84.6 mol % of linoleic acid was located in
the 2-position in a safower oil containing 76.4% linoleic acid.
2.3. Safower Meal
The by-product of the extraction of safower oil is a grayish tan to brown cake
or meal that exhibits akes or shreds of whitish safower hulls. Table 10 presents
typical analysis for safower meal. Most meal produced in the United States is of a
solvent-extracted type. The amino acid and mineral contents of meal are shown in
Table 11.
Australian data from 1959 indicated up to 17,324 kg/ha of green matter
(2762 kg/ha of dry matter) could be gained by grazing safower as a green crop
TABLE 10. Typical Analyses for U.S. Safower Meal (87).
Characteristic A
a
B
b
C
c
D
d
Crude protein, % 21.03 20.00 42.0 25.4
Crude fat, % 6.6 0.5 1.3 1.5
Moisture, % 9.0 10.0 9.2 8.0
Crude ber, % 32.2 37.0 15.1 32.5
Ash 3.7 5.0 7.8 5.9
Calcium, % 0.23 0.24 0.4 0.37
Total phosphorus, % 0.61 0.24 0.4 0.8
NFE, % 40.0
TDN, % 57.0
a
Expeller pressing of safower seed without decortication.
b
The low end fraction of meal that resulted from prepresssolvent extraction of safower seed followed by two
fraction tail-end decortication.
c
The high end fraction of meal that resulted from prepresssolvent extraction of safower seed followed by
two-fraction tail-end decortication.
d
Prepresssolvent extraction of safower seed without decortication. Typical California, 1992.
510 SAFFLOWER OIL
with 1112% protein (22). Indian researchers have presented several papers that
showed promise concerning the production of fodder and ratoon seed in northern
India (8292). In 1993, a U.S. farmer was able to harvest approximately
8000 kg/ha of green hay, which measured 18% protein from a safower crop that
failed to mature.
3. PROCESSING
3.1. Extraction
Much of the safower processed in India in the past was crushed by a mortar-and-
pestle-like device called a ghani. Seed was cleaned by hand and then introduced
into a chakki. This machine, which consisted of two horizontal stone wheels, one
of which was turned by a blindfolded bullock, partially dehulled the cleaned seed
passing between the stones. Hand winnowing and sieving next removed the hulls
from the seed kernels. The meats were pressed into balls after the addition of about
6% water. About 15 kg of the balled kernels were introduced into the ghani, an
inverted conical mortar into which a heavy pole was placed. The pole was held to
the side of the mortar by heavy weights and dragged around the perimeter by a team
of oxen. A small amount of heated oil was added, and crushing then proceeded for
45 min, after which the oil was allowed to drain out through a small hole. A ghani
could process about 100120 kg of seed per day.
More recently, ghanis capable of processing 150175 kg per day were some-
times motor driven. Animal-powered ghanis could obtain 1116% residual oil in
the extracted meats, while motor driven models could extract 1012%. Today,
TABLE 11. Amino Acids and Minerals in Safower Meal (87, 88).
a
Factor A B C
Methionine 0.4 0.33 0.69
Cystine 0.5 0.35 0.7
Lysine 0.7 0.7 1.3
Tryptophane 0.3 0.26 0.6
Threonine 0.47 0.5 1.35
Isoleucine 0.28 0.27 1.7
Histidine 0.48 0.5 1.0
Valine 1.0 1.0 2.3
Leucine 1.1 1.2 2.5
Arginine 1.2 1.9 3.7
Phenylalinine 1.0 1.0 1.85
Glycine 1.1 1.1 2.4
Calcium 0.28 0.37 0.44
Phosphorus 0.78 0.80 1.41
Potassium 0.79 0.79 1.33
Magnesium 0.36 0.37 1.33
a
See Table 10 for explanation of A, B, and C. Numbers are percents.
PROCESSING 511
some cast-iron ghanis, expellers, and solvent-extraction plants are used, in addition
to the older stone devices (9395). The oil extracted by a ghani is claried by set-
tling and decanting or by water washing. The oil is placed in tins for local sale.
Most safower was rst processed in the United States by continuous screw
press expellers. Some processors attempted decortication, but the nature of saf-
ower seed acts against successful decortication. To prevent the oil from scorching,
water-cooled shafts were recommended. Oil so treated could easily be heat
bleached to a level below 4 Gardner color. Expellers such as the Anderson Super
Duo Duplex could process about 15 t of safower seed per day, leaving 78% resi-
dual oil in the remaining cake. However, the principal problem encountered in pro-
cessing safower seed through expellers was the propensity of expeller-processed
safower meal to burn in storage (96). The combination of a reactive polyunsatu-
rated residual and the brous texture of safower meal created many res in the
1950s and early 1960s. Once safower processing shifted to prepresssolvent
extraction, which brought residual oil contents down below 1.5%, most storage pro-
blems were eliminated.
These same expellers, if employed in a prepressing mode wherein 1517% resi-
dual oil remains in the cake that is sent to the solvent extraction unit, can process
4550 t of seed per day. Prepressing of safower produced under California
conditions (or the equivalent) requires no cooking, aking, or cracking of the
seed before extraction and results in oil capable of being heat bleached to 13
Gardner color.
In the early 1960s, PVO produced an air gun device that decorticated safower
seed satisfactorily, but the idea was abandoned because it required too much energy
and was extremely noisy (34). A PVO researcher developed a method for decorti-
cating safower meal after extraction, which employed the principle that the ne
particles produced in grinding safower cake are high in protein and the coarser
particles are more brous (97). This method, using vertical hammer mills to grind
the cake and a combination of air classication and screening was employed by
several California mills in the 1960s and 1970s to produce safower meal of
42% protein, in addition to an 1820% protein middle fraction and a 6% protein
hull fraction. More recently, most mills have returned to only producing as is
meal of approximately 25% protein content, because the high amount of energy
consumed by the tail-end process cost more than the additional return gained
from the high protein fraction.
The high cost of energy encouraged some mills in the 1980s and 1990s to
replace or supplement prepress expellers with caged expander-extruders, which
are capable of removing approximately 66% of the available oil through the caged
portion of the extruder and to produce collets that are ideal for efcient solvent frac-
tion. Extruders require much less horsepower per ton of seed processed than expel-
lers and cost less to maintain (98100).
Horizontal basket or moving bed solvent extractors are preferred over vertical
tower extractors in processing safower cake. The brous nature of safower pro-
vides a natural channel through which the solvent can move, and the bed acts as
a natural lter medium. Tower extractors generally have problems extracting
512 SAFFLOWER OIL
safower seed because the hulls tend to oat, sometimes carry over in the top of the
extractor, and cause excessive wear in a towers rotary seal.
3.2. Rening, Bleaching, and Deodorizing
Safower oil that is extracted from seed in good condition is easy to rene because
it is low in FFA and contains few gums or impurities. Conventional caustic rening
systems work well. This most important factor in handling safower oil, destined
for edible use, is to limit exposure to air throughout the extraction, rening, bleach-
ing, deodorizing, and packaging cycle. Nitrogen blanketing should be employed if
deodorized oil is to be stored for more than a few hours. Generally speaking, saf-
ower oil processed by expeller processing will contain just enough free fatty acids
and impurities to require rening before deodorization; in most cases, safower oil
prepressed from California, Arizona, or northern Mexico seed can be introduced
directly to deodorizers. California prepress oil normally will meet a varnish makers
nonbreak grade without further processing.
Safower seed that is produced in areas with late summer rains or cool weather
cycles that interfere with maturation can produce dark-colored or greenish oils that
are often higher in FFA as well. If the seed has sprouted before or during harvest or
has been attacked by Alternaria, Pseudomonas, or other head-rot diseases, the
resulting oil can be quite difcult to rene and extremely difcult to bleach.
While safower oil may, on occasion, display minute traces of a ne, lacy wax
(101), most U.S. reners neither winterize nor dewax safower oil, feeling that a
brilliant oil can be delivered without it. Japanese reners generally insist on rening
and bleaching safower oil to under 1.0 red color, followed by winterization to
avoid problems with minute amounts of wax that may appear in the oil in the winter
months in the north.
3.3. Production of Margarine and Mayonnaise
If proper steps are not taken, physical crystal changes (polymorphism) can take
place in the production of safower margarines, resulting in a product with a sandy
texture (102). The b-crystalline form that results consists of large crystals instead of
the smooth, uniform mixture desired in a margarine; safowers uniform triglycer-
ide structure encourages production of b-crystals. This problem can be solved by
incorporation of a small amount of more saturated oil into the margarine mix. PVO
solved the problem in its Saffola margarine by adding 5% cottonseed oil, which
also improved the products mouth feel (34). A 1966 patent described a blending
of liquid safower with selectively hydrogenated safower and peanut oils (103).
Soft safower margarines, wherein a highly hydrogenated safower lattice was
employed to encapsulate a larger portion of liquid safower oil, have been success-
fully produced by several companies (34). The methods employed to produce these
types of margarine structures have been reviewed (104, 105). It has been shown that
Cr(CO)
3
catalysts can be used to selectively hydrogenate safower oil and retain a
9095% cis conguration (106108). Several studies have reported on safower oils
PROCESSING 513
good taste, appearance, odor, and texture in mayonnaise and frozen salad dressings,
where it exhibits excellent qualities in repeated freezethaw cycles (34, 102,
109, 110).
3.4. Industrial Processing
Although this Chapter is concerned with oils that are used in edible products, it is
well to remember that safower oils recognition in modern times occurred because
of interest in its excellent properties as a semidrying oil. Safower oils light color,
ability to heat bleach to near water whiteness, low level of free fatty acids and
impurities, and lack of linolenic acid make it an ideal vehicle for white house paints
and varnishes and for the production of alkyd resins. It is easy to polymerize via
kettle bodying without the need for vacuum equipment; capable of producing excel-
lent blown, limed, or maleated oils; and acts as a good source for conjugation or
methyl esters (34).
4. ECONOMICS AND MARKETING
As mentioned, safower is a crop that has been grown for thousands of years, pri-
marily for local use. As people traveled they carried safower seeds with them, gen-
erally for personal use. It is only in recent times that safower has entered world
commerce; still much of what is produced remains in the country where it is grown.
The price of wheat has been the dominant factor affecting the price that U.S.
farmers must receive for safower seed to put safower into their cropping plans.
In its early years of U.S. production, safower oil competed directly with soybean
oil for market share and soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, offered as
a reasonable medium for hedging safower seed and oil prices. But, more recently,
safower prices have borne little relationship to the market for soybean oil, and saf-
ower oil has become a product that is impossible to hedge.
In 1997, U.S. farm wholesale prices were the following: safower oil, tanks,
$0.59 lb; soybean oil, tanks, $0.24/lb. In 2002, prices for were safower oil, tanks,
$0.79/lb, soybean oil, tanks, $0.19/lb (53).
4.1. Safower Seed
In the United States, most safower seed is grown by farmers who have agreed to a
contract of sale with an oil mill or grain dealer before planting the crop. Because
there is no daily market for safower seed posted in the newspaper and there are no
quotations available from the commodity futures markets, most banks or other
nancing agencies encourage farmers to contract their crop in advance. There is
no other way for the bank to protect any funds that have been loaned with the
crop as collateral.
The usual safower production contracts state that the farmer will deliver the
entire yield from a given number of acres or hectares. The buyer assumes the
514 SAFFLOWER OIL
risk of yield. Besides stating the number of hectares to be planted and their location,
contracts usually specify the type of planting seed, the name of a landlord (if any),
what compensation he or she is to receive, and of course, the price and point of
delivery.
The National Institute of Oilseed Products (NIOP) publishes an annual rule book
that covers specications and standards of trade for many vegetable oils, including
safower and oleic safower. Rules 7.1 g and h (formerly 110 g and h) and 7.1 i
(formerly 110 i) are the NIOP rules for safower seed and oleic seed, respectively.
When combined with the state of Californias ofcial standards for safower seed,
little room exists for argument as to the meaning of a contract between buyer and
seller.
Safower seed is usually sold domestically on a dockage-free basis with no limit
on the amount of dockage a shipment of seed might contain. Dockage is dened as
any foreign material plus parts of the safower plant other than seed, empty or
partly lled seeds and broken parts of the seed small enough to pass through a
screen opening of 1.78 mm. Moisture content is required to be <8%, unless the
buyer is willing to accept a higher percentage in exchange for a penalty. Most
oil mills will accept limited quantities of seed up to 12% moisture content, if their
schedule permits such seed to be processed immediately. Moisture content levels
higher than 12% cause problems in expeller operation. Some mills also operate
grain dryers, which allow them to accept higher moisture content seed.
Normally, buyers require safower seed that contains more than 5% dockage or
green foreign matter or that is higher than 8% moisture to be cleaned before accept-
ing it. This is to prevent heating in storage. Because most buyers in California pur-
chase safower seed from the farmer free on board a truck at the edge of the eld,
making the buyer responsible for the cost of freight to the elevator or oil mill site,
the farmer is normally also charged for the cost of freight involved on dockage in
excess of 5%. In other states, in Mexico, and most other parts of the world, the
farmer is responsible for the delivery of the seed to the buyers location.
In most parts of the world, except India, safower seed is handled in bulk. In
California this is accomplished in large aluminum-sided, bottom-dumping, open-
top truck trailers of approximately 1012 t capacity each, two of which are hauled
in tandem to a eld by a truck tractor unit. The trailers are left by the eld to be
lled by the farmer, and the tractor unit returns and hauls the full trailers directly to
the oil mill or export terminal (in some cases up to 250 km away) or to a closer
grain elevator for intermediate storage. In other parts of the United States, safower
is delivered in many types of grain trucking equipment and much of it is delivered
to small country elevators where it is stored, cleaned if necessary, and subsequently
loaded onto trucks or railroad hopper cars (which can hold between 50 and 70 t of
safower seed) for delivery to a buyer.
Correct methods for sampling of safower seed are specied in the NIOP rules.
Three probes in each truck trailer with a grain probe is the preferred method. Sam-
pling takes place on delivery of the seed to the rst place of rest and is conducted if
possible by a third party (a representative of the California State Department of
Agriculture or an employee of the receiving elevator company) to minimize
ECONOMICS AND MARKETING 515
disputes. Moisture content and refractive index (if oleic safower is delivered) of
the parcel is checked immediately and a carefully split portion of the sample is then
forwarded to the nearest state of California or other independent laboratory for
determination of dockage or, should the sampled seed be defective, other factors.
In other states besides California and Arizona, the purchase contract species a
price that is based on a dockage-free sample, a certain level of oil content, and the
moisture content at the time of delivery. This is necessary because of the effect that
cold temperatures, rain, snow, disease, or drought can have on the oil content of an
individual crop. In California and Arizona, little variation in oil content occurs from
year to year in a particular variety of safower. In the northern Great Plains states,
the oil content of a seed that might be 3840% in a normal year can be as low as
2025% under adverse conditions. In the mountain states, these variations are
usually less extreme. Safower seed in the Great Plains is normally purchased on
a 38% oil content basis (sometimes 40% is used as a basis) with reciprocal allow-
ance of 2% for each 1% variation in oil content (fractions in proportion) applied to
the agreed on price.
Because the United States does not use the metric system, prices in California
and Arizona are normally quoted in dollars per short ton of (2000 lb, 907.185 kg)
and in the Great Plains and mountain states most transactions are xed in cents per
pound (453.59 g). In the rest of the world, metric tons or quintals prevail, except in
some parts of India and China. Prices paid to farmers in various parts of the United
States vary because of quality and distance from nal markets.
The price offered for safower seed in California is shaped by several market
elements. The principal factor is the amount of land in the central valley that
will be committed to rice, cotton, and tomatoes, the three primary income-produ-
cing crops in the area. Safower, sugar beets, grain, and corn compete for the
remaining cultivated land; the competition between wheat and safower is the
most intense. Experienced farmers favor safower over wheat if the contracting
price for safower multiplied by an average yield of 2.5 tons/ha equals or exceeds
the perceived price for wheat multiplied by a yield of 5.06.0 tons/ha. Safower
buyers usually begin negotiating with farmers in October, since farmers must
make the decision to withhold planting wheat at that time. Wheat is normally
planted in late November through January, and safower is planted during February
through April. During the 1980s the acreage of safower planted in California
would decline sharply when prices fell below $275/t. In the 1990s, this value
was about $330/t, because of ination and the increasing prices for other crops.
The second factor that affects the price of safower is the condition of the mar-
ket for safower oil. For example, there may be a surplus of oil from the previous
crop, Mexico may be forecasting a large harvest (which occurs 34 months before
the U.S. harvest), or Japanese buyers may be experiencing a slowdown in their
domestic market.
Because safower oil is a specialty that serves a market that responds little, if at
all, to price changes, these two factors tend to slow down dealers desire to buy the
seed, and a rationing process takes place. Dealers either delay their opening gambits
to contract for safower seed from the next crop or offer low prices that do not
516 SAFFLOWER OIL
compete with other alternatives. Side issues that affect supply (drought, disease, or
oods; longshore or transportation strikes; etc.) and price (changes in government
support for competing crops or in import or export regulations, etc.) also affect
these decisions. Safower prices are not affected by prices for other commodity
types of oils such as sunower, soya, and canola, except in periods of wild upward
price movements. If prices for other oils climb above $880/t safower oil prices
move up accordingly or the safower oil disappears into export markets as a
replacement.
Of course, the demand for safower can be changed by longer-term fundamental
changes. In Japan, safower oil is identied as an eminently healthy oil that is given
as a gift. Should medical research nd that polyunsaturates, and particularly saf-
ower oil, cause medical problems that outweigh its benets, demand for the oil
would crumble. On the other hand, if long-term medical studies show that mono-
unsaturates, including oleic safower oil, are preferred over the types of oils, even
over linoleic safower oil, there might be a shift in the ratio of linoleic to oleic
safower oil consumption. This appears to be happening in Japan.
Safower seeds produced in California are located close to the ultimate domestic
safower oil markets as well as near export terminals for ocean shipping to Japan or
Europe. Safower seeds produced in the Great Plains, however, are generally priced
$50/t below California prices for several reasons. First, Great Plains safower seed
is generally 35% lower in oil content than western seed, and in years of bad weath-
er it can be much lower. Second, while the oil produced therefrom is generally
24% higher in linoleic fatty acid than California seed, it is normally 0.25% higher
in FFA and 12 Gardner color units higher, with generally a greenish tinge, all of
which necessitates higher rening and bleaching costs. Great Plains prepress oil
normally cannot be deodorized without prior rening. Finally, Great Plains seed
must face a long railroad trip to markets in California, or if delivered locally for
processing, the oil and meal produced from it face long trips to consumer markets.
Safower growers in the mountain states face similar discounting problems. Moun-
tain-grown seed usually is closer to California seed in quality but has no local
milling or customer base so all seed must be delivered over a long distance.
These factors do not apply to the markets for safower seed sold for bird feed.
Birdseed buyers specications emphasize seed color (pure white seed is preferred)
test weight (a weight in excess of 0.4739 kg/L is desired), and purity (less than 1
2% foreign material is preferred). Oil content is not a factor. Seeds that have heavy
white hulls and, accordingly, low oil content are preferred for birdseed use. Conse-
quently, birdseed buyers, whose customers are located predominantly in the eastern
half of the United States or overseas, prefer to contract in the Great Plains and
mountain states, where they compete with $50/ton lower seed prices and enjoy a
$4050/ton freight advantage to eastern markets.
It is hard to judge the exact size of the market for birdseed safower, but as feed-
ing of wild birds increases in the United States, most dealers believe it has exceeded
20,000 t annually. China generally enjoys the reputation of supplying the best bird-
seed quality, since much of Chinese seed is below 30% in oil content and normally
has white hulls. Weather and transportation factors sometimes increase difculties
for marketers of Chinese-origin seed. Indian seed was a factor in world birdseed
markets until 1989, when the Indian government banned the exportation of seed
to improve local supplies of oil. This undoubtedly contributed to the increase in
the U.S. birdseed market.
Exportation of safower seed to Japan was the largest factor in the expansion of
U.S. safower seed production. When high duties on the oilseeds entering Japan
began to be relaxed, U.S. safower seed exports declined. Once more than 10 oil
mills were engaged in processing safower seed in Japan, now only 2 mills con-
tinue to crush safower seed there. The remainder of Japans needs for safower
oil are covered by imports of safower oil. Safower seed exports are governed
by the NIOP Rule 7.1 g (former Rule 110 g Export). Many factors are involved
in the Domestic Rule (Rule 7.1 h), but export terms require measurement of oil con-
tent and payment of a premium or discount much as most seed is purchased in the
Great Plains states. The export safower seed rule establishes a price basis point of
34% oil content with a premium/discount of 2% for each 1% of oil content variation
with fractions in proportion. The 34% level is used, even though most seed exported
today is in the range of 4143% oil content, because this was the level of oil content
available when safower rst started being exported. Export rules also allow only a
maximum of 3% dockage for an export shipment to be considered correct, although
provisions are made for allowing shipments containing up to 6% maximum in
exchange for a penalty of an additional 0.2% for shipments measuring between 3
and 6% dockage.
Because one oceangoing vessel normally carries 3,0005,000 t, and up to
15,000 t, the sampling methods are different from those used for truckloads. The
NIOP rules call for oil, moisture, and dockage analyses to be performed separately
on samples representing each 1,000 t, or fraction thereof, loaded on a vessel. In the
case of oil content analyses, identical samples of each 1,000-t lot are presented to
ve different independent laboratories, each laboratory reports its analyses for the
entire load on a weighted average basis, the results of the laboratory with the high-
est and lowest oil contents are discarded and the results of the remaining three are
averaged and used for payment purposes. In this manner a fair analysis is made,
because safower oil content is difcult to measure accurately.
Almost all safower seed exported to Japan from the United States has come
from California and in some years, Arizona. This is because the Japanese prefer
the quality of West Coast production, preferring not to pay a high ocean freight
cost on a seed that is lower in oil content; generally produces higher color and ren-
ing costs; and may contain the fungus Sclerontinia sclerotina, which although
found regularly in the Great Plains has not yet been observed in California. Japan
imports some safower seed from Australia and a small quantity from China, to
obtain the 80% linoleic safower oil that Chinese seed can guarantee. Japan
also imported safower seed from Mexico at one time. The United States has
exported safower seed to Europe, but recently the high price of safower seed
and low value of safower meal in Europe have made the processing of safower
seed impractical, and imports have been conned to safower or oleic safower
oils.
518 SAFFLOWER OIL
4.2. Safower Oil
In todays marketplace safower occupies a unique position. It is the oil with the
highest level of linoleic acid available commercially. It continues to enjoy a favor-
able reputation in the mind of consumers, which is a legacy of the polyunsaturated
boom of the 1960s. Most safower oil produced today reaches consumers as a
rened, deodorized, and bleached salad oil; as a principal ingredient in margarine;
and in several forms of mayonnaise and salad dressings. A small percentage of the
total oil produced, primarily prepress oil, is bottled and sold to consumers without
any further rening, bleaching, or treatment of any kind other than ltration. In the
United States and Europe, a small segment of the market wants an oil that has not
been exposed to chemicals (in this case hexane). Bottled prepress oil generally has
a short shelf life, perhaps of less than 2 weeks, and once opened the oil needs to be
refrigerated so it does not develop strong odors.
Two sellers dominate the U.S. grocery market for all safower-edible products,
although a number of other companies produce small quantities for health food
venues. Bottled safower salad oil generally retails at more than $1 per bottle high-
er than canola, corn, sunower, or soybean oil. Customers for safower oil make up
a small but dedicated segment of the market. Safower salad oil brands have never
achieved over a 7% market share, and without heavy advertising, this level drops
in half.
In Japan, the premium price is almost an advantage, and the companies market-
ing safower oil enjoy better margins for the product than other oils produce. They
exert strict quality controls, market the oil in beautiful and expensive gift packs, and
engage in heavy advertising to maintain market share. In Japans gift-giving sea-
sons, safower oil has achieved a premier status among all oils. Some say it has
captured up to 85% of this market.
In Mexico, safower oil occupied a preferred status for many years in grocery
stores catering to the afuent. When rst produced in Mexico, a sizable portion of
the safower oil produced was used as an adulterant in sesame oil. Over time, saf-
ower became the premier oil in the marketplace and puro cartamo would com-
mand a substantial premium. Safower oil itself soon began to be adulterated
with sunower and other oils, and eventually consumers became aware of this
and switched loyalty to branded oils that were cheaper. Little safower oil is found
in Mexico because it is generally exported to the United States or Europe, and lower
priced sunower, canola, or soybean oil is imported in its place.
A similar situation has taken place in Australia, where the bulk of safower
grown is no longer processed for the local market but is exported as seed or oil.
A small amount of Australias safower total is devoted to producing so-called
organic safower oil. Because Australia still has virgin farmland, it is possible to
produce a crop of safower using no herbicides, insecticides, or fertilizer. Some
organic safower oil is also produced in the United States. In the last 3 years the
most successful program has been operated by Saffola Grocery Products Co., which
markets so-called Grown Without Pesticides safower oil. Saffola has chosen to use
this method, because it wishes to establish its own denition for the purity of its
product, in contrast to organic oils, which are usually dened by government edict,
subject to periodic change. The Grown Without Pesticides (GWP) regime requires
that the safower is planted on land that has had no chemicals applied to it for at
least 6 months and that shows no residue levels. The farmer is allowed to apply
fertilizer but no planting seed fungicides (allowed in organic farming) or other che-
micals. A thorough auditing scheme that includes inspection of the crop throughout
the growth cycle and inspection of harvesters, trucks, and storage facilities for
cleanliness and lack of chemical sprays is employed. This is more rigorous than
the standards employed by the organic industry, which works primarily on the hon-
or system.
The GWP program for oleic safower oil has been successful when there is hea-
vy advertising. Saffola has not been able to expand beyond the regional market
because of the cost of advertising. The Japanese gift-pack market, which also
uses heavy advertising, includes some oleic safower oil. One manufacturer is sell-
ing a blend of linoleic and oleic safower oils to combine the good attributes of
both oils in a single package; its largest competitor markets the oils separately to
give the customer a choice.
In India much oil is still sold by small mills that simply lter oil from the press
and supply the product in small tins or even in the consumers own vessel. Safower
production is by and large a neighborhood affair in India. While the government is
encouraging more production of all types of oilseeds, sunower, which has much
wider adaptation than safower, enjoyed spectacular increase in production in the
1990s.
The European market consists of three areas. First, safower oil is an ingredient
in sunower-based margarines, helping to maintain a guaranteed level of polyunsa-
turation. This market area may be in decline, because some manufacturers lowered
their polyunsaturated guarantee levels in early 1994, opting perhaps to feature low
saturation or higher monounsaturation attributes in the future. Safower oil also
nds a small but dedicated audience because of its high level of unsaturation. A
portion of this market prefers to use either unrened prepress oil or a form that
has been gently deodorized. The third market area is for safower, and particularly
oleic safower, oil that is used for blending with other oils. When safower oil
became more expensive than other oils, this market area virtually vanished.
Much more rigorous and sophisticated control measures by government authorities
have also restricted attempts at blending.
Like safower seed most safower oil also is traded under rules established by
the National Institute of Oilseed Products, in this case Rule 6.11 and 6.12. Rules for
both domestic and export shipments are in force, with the primary difference being
that the export rules require more analyses to be performed before payment. Of
course, some U.S. buyers, many of whom have never heard of the NIOP, establish
their own specications for the safower oil they purchase, but by and large their
standards meet or exceed the NIOP grades.
It is outside the scope of this article to examine the medical literature that fueled
the polyunsaturated boom of the 1960s (34) and that has continued to provide
impetus to the U.S., European, and Japanese safower oil markets. Whether
520 SAFFLOWER OIL
monounsaturation or simply lack of saturation will become the wave of the future
is unknown, but from an historic viewpoint it is interesting to observe how oleic
safower production slowly increased since the crop was introduced in 1967
(Table 12).
In the United States in 2003, 221 10
3
acres of safower were planted and
212 10
3
acres were harvested. Forecasts for 2004 are for 142 10
3
acres to be
planted and 133 10
3
acres to be harvested (111).
4.3. Safower Meal
Safower meal, the by-product of the production of safower oil, contains all of the
hull. The high ber content of the hull limits its value. In California, safower meal
is employed primarily as an ingredient in dairy feeds; it is also used in beef cattle
feed and to a limited extent in poultry mixes. In the 1960s and 1970s, when saf-
ower meal was being decorticated by the tail end process, the resultant high
(3842%) protein fraction found good employment in chicken and turkey rations.
PVO produced three meal fractions of 42, 20, and 6% protein. Although PVO and
TABLE 12. Historic U.S. Oleic Safower Plantings and Production.
Crop Year Plantings (ha) Production (t)
1967 405 953
1968 5,221 11,031
1969 8,580 23,014
1970 5,868 12,973
1971 13,462 32,922
1972 8,843 20,321
1973 15,480 24,222
1974 11,615 22,801
1975 21,004 43,316
1976 9,632 23,678
1977 9,594 24,540
1978 14,569 21,037
1979 19,010 36,940
1980 13,345 31,351
1981 9,340 24,721
1982 4,856 12,701
1983 4,917 12,610
1984 11,550 31,026
1985 10,958 27,994
1986 11,635 31,425
1987 4,290 11,340
1988 8,094 20,684
1989 10,805 29,393
1990 11,343 29,908
1991 10,891 22,803
1992 33,634 48,680
1993 36,430 73,564
others spent considerable time searching for alternative uses for safower hulls, the
best bet in that period was to export the 6% fraction to Japan, where safower hulls
were used as low cost ller in many types of compound feeds. Japan was also a
regular consumer of 20% protein (sometimes purchased basis 20% proteinfat com-
bined analysis), but in todays market, safower meal from the United States is not
competitive in the Japanese market.
Safower hulls nd their best market when incorporated in safower meal, and
none has been produced separately for many years in the United States, because
most mills produced only two fractions when decorticating, 20 and 42% portions.
Today, the energy consumed in separating safower meal fractions exceeds the
premium that can be gained from the high protein fraction, so most mills conne
themselves to offering as is meal of 25% protein.
Numerous studies have shown safower oil to be a good feed product for beef
cattle (112116), dairy cattle (117119), poultry (120123), and lamb (124127),
and is generally available at price levels that are similar to the lowest prices for
alfalfa hay, grain screenings, almond hulls, and other low protein feeds.
Promising experiments have been done to produce protein our or protein iso-
lates from safower meal. The USDA compared safower protein isolate with
isolate from soy and found the safower product to be quite useful. The study
also outlined the cost of investment and production for the process envisioned
(128130). Other researchers have written extensively on this subject (131134).
A factory would need considerably more than the total U.S. supply of safower
meal to produce an economically viable protein isolate. Unless a scientic break-
through can materially reduce the hull portion of a safower seed while retaining
satisfactory yields, meal will continue to sell for a modest price and to be consid-
ered a second-rank product. NIOP Rules 8.1.18.1.3 established the factors guiding
the trade in safower meal.
5. QUALITY ASSESSMENT
Although most of the standard tests for measuring physical and chemical character-
istics of a product work well for safower seed and its products, some unique
problems have arisen over the years.
5.1. Safower Seed
When safower was rst introduced into the United States, the Fred Stein Co. was
the rst to produce a chart, the Steinlite moisture meter, calibrated specically for
safower seed, allowing moisture to be rapidly and correctly determined at the
elevator. Most moisture meters available today work well on safower seed.
During its growth cycle, a safower head will respond to the amount of moisture
available. If there is plenty of moisture, many of the individual seeds that have
begun to form in the head will ll completely. If moisture is restricted or if a sudden
trauma such as disease or removal of water occurs, some of the seeds that have
522 SAFFLOWER OIL
begun to ll will stop lling and others will not even begin. This results in a mixture
in each safower head of some seeds that are plump and completely lled and
others that appear to be the same but that, on inspection, are empty or only partially
lled. For the laboratories performing dockage tests on the thousands of samples
representing each truckload delivered, it can be a daunting task to nd which seeds
are empty or partially lled. Originally, the dockage analysis method adopted by the
state of California employed a series of hand screens, followed by winnowing
through a Bates aspirator and hand picking of the resultant sample to nd empty
seeds that escaped the aspirator. This method was too slow, and when used to mea-
sure samples containing high amounts of empty hulls, as is often encountered in
Great Plains safower, up to 30 passes through an aspirator were required to nd
all empties.
During the 1950s and early 1960s, PVO and the California State Department of
Agriculture performed hundreds of experiments together aimed at producing a sim-
pler and more reproducible test for dockage. As a result, modications to the Carter
Dockage Tester were developed that allow consistent measurement of dockage.
This method was adopted by the California Department of Agriculture and by
the NIOP, incorporating the procedure as part of Rules 7.1 g D and E (135).
Determining the oil content of safower seed in the laboratory by solvent
extraction is also more difcult than for other oilseeds because of the vast differ-
ence in texture of the hull compared to the kernel within. The hull must be cracked
or all of the oil will not be extracted. But in cracking the seed, the kernel tends
to mash as well and small amounts of oil can be lost in the process, a small amount
is important when the sample contains only 5 g of seed. Since many people
expressed dissatisfaction in safower oil content analyses, PVOs control labora-
tory worked for a long time to develop a better method than the standard AOCS
procedure (136). This method of analysis is now part of the NIOP rules for
safower (137).
The NIOP also conducted extensive tests to develop methods for better sampling
of safower seed. Field run safower seed is fairly difcult to sample. Although
pure safower seed is relatively smooth owing, the seed delivered by a farmer
can contain portions of stalks and stems; parts of the head that held seed; and
leaves, and other foreign material. Safower seed, which has traveled over bumpy
roads for 50200 km inside a truck, for 3000 km in a railroad hopper car, or for
10000 km in the hold of a heavy grain carrier on its way to Japan, tends to stratify,
and unless the sampling device reaches all levels of the product, the sample is not
representative. Japanese buyers, who were receiving 5,00015,000 tons of safower
at a time, found that the oil content and dockage analyses performed at time of ship-
ment did not reect what the oil mills obtained as a nal outturn in the milling of
the same seeds. The NIOP adopted standard sampling and dividing procedures
aimed at reducing variation in results, and these procedures now are incorporated
in their rules (138).
It is particularly important to remember that the sample used in analyzing saf-
ower oil contents must be rst cleaned of all dockage (including empty hulls),
unlike the common method of measuring sunower oil contents, which is
QUALITY ASSESSMENT 523
performed on seed containing admixture. This puts a premium on good sampling,
good cleaning, good division of the sample, and consistent performance of the ana-
lysis itself.
Safower seed oil content can also be determined by the use of nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR), and today most plant breeders employ NMR techniques to mea-
sure their new lines. NMR techniques can be performed on only one half of a seed,
so the other half can be planted if the results of the analysis are promising. In its
earlier versions, processors tended to feel that NMR analysis produced oil content
results that were slightly higher than found by standard solvent extraction analysis
or than what was actually obtained at the oil mill. This has been disproven in the
case of safower seed, and the industry has adopted NMR analyses in large part
to speed up paperwork. Because of the relatively small amount of safower seed
being measured for oil content annually, no one has taken the time to prove that
present-day NMR procedures should be used to substitute for the standard AOCS
procedure.
The USDA published what may have been the rst practical procedure for
quickly determining if a truckload of seed is a linoleic or oleic variety (138). It
involves squeezing a few seeds in a small hand-powered press to obtain a few drops
of oil. A drop of oil is placed on the glass prism cell of a hand-held refractometer.
The refractive index has a straight-line relationship with the iodine value or fatty
acid distribution of the oil, hence it is easy to determine if the seed in question
meets an oleic standard or not, so long as a temperature correction is applied.
Recently, it has become simpler to compare the unknown sample to a known oil
standard, eliminating the need to apply a temperature correction. Temperature cor-
rections are difcult to measure accurately in the eld under the time pressure of
harvest.
5.2. Safower Oil
Measurement of safower oils various chemical and physical characteristics is
quite straightforward and only minor changes have occurred over 50 years in the
rules governing the safower trade. In 1990, the requirement for certication that
safower oil demonstrate a negative halphen test was dropped. The emergence of
better and better GLC technology eliminated the need for a color test of cottonseed
oil adulteration.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Utilization Laboratories at Philadelphia,
Peoria, and particularly Albany, California, contributed a major body of work
that measured various factors that affect the quality of safower and its reaction
to various processes. Oxidation reactions of safower oil and methods for following
heat-generated changes in composition during deep-fat frying were studied in depth
(139143). USDA scientists at Albany (144) and Peoria (145) analyzed the head-
space volatiles of safower methyl esters and safower oil, respectively, subjected
to accelerated oxidation and found them to be the most reactive of all oils tested.
One study showed vinyl-n-amylkelone to be the compound responsible for the gen-
eration of metallic off-avors in oxidized safower oil (146). USDA researchers
524 SAFFLOWER OIL
demonstrated the effects of oxyfatty acids, malonaldehyde and diclorocarbenes,
respectively, on oil avor and storage reactions (147149).
It has been demonstrated that tocopherols in linoleic safower oil were more
stable than tocopherols in oleic safower oil (150). The USDA did room odor stu-
dies that showed that oleic safower did well compared with all other oils used in
the study (151). A broad study was conducted of the effects of various substances
on the oxidation of safower oil in deep frying (152); of high temperature reactions
in the presence of amino acids (153); and of the effect of amino acids on emulsions
(154), dried emulsions (155, 156), and chemical and organoleptic properties
(155, 156).
5.3. Safower Meal
As mentioned, safower meal tends to stratify in storage so the principal problem in
quality control is making sure a truly representative sample is obtained. The USDA
Regional Utilization Laboratory at Albany, California, produced a body of work
concerning safower meal that allows a better understanding of its attributes and
deciencies. A survey of the world collections for seeds high in lysine was under-
taken (157), and this work has been continued for both lysine and methionine at the
Eastern Experiment Station of Montana State University (158). The work included
studies of safower steroids (159161). Another study demonstrated how to remove
deleterious glucosides from safower meal and then demonstrated possibilities for
removal of these and other negative factors to make safower meal a more useful
product (162). Others have isolated three conjugated serotin factors (163) and their
related phenolic factors (164).
6. STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION
6.1. Safower Seed
The most important element in the storage of safower seed is anticipation of pro-
blems. If safower seed buyers maintain contact with the suppliers and inspect the
elds, most problems can be solved before they escalate. Safower seed that is
below 8% moisture; is free of green weed, seeds, or trash; and has been brought
to room temperature gradually is quite stable and can be stored indenitely with
no problem. Arranging for outside cleaning and/or drying before delivery to the
oil mill and possible rejection, if the grower is unable to cope with weeds in
the eld, is much better than handling such problems on an emergency basis at
time of delivery.
Because oleic and linoleic safower seeds are virtually identical in appearance,
extreme care is necessary to prevent inadvertent mixing. If a positive paper trail can
be established for identifying elds of linoleic and oleic safower from time of
planting until delivery to the oil mill or storage point, much more condence is pos-
sible when the samples are taken and the seed is checked for refractive index to
STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION 525
verify positively the type delivered. Each load can be properly directed to its appro-
priate discharge point. If safower seed is put into storage free of included green
weeds or other plant material, with moisture level that has been brought to equili-
brium at 8% or under, it can be stored indenitely.
At the time of the year that safower is harvested, air temperatures are often in
excess of 38
C. If safower seed is being harvested from a particularly weedy eld,

the farmer must be careful to monitor the temperature of the seed in the truck or
trailer into which the harvest is loaded. If a truck is forced to wait overnight in such
conditions, the seed can begin heating to a dangerous level. Similarly, if seed is
brought to a warehouse on a hot day, it is prudent for the warehouse to pull air
through the seed pile or silo until the temperature of the entire mass reaches equi-
librium. Monitoring the temperature within the seed mass by means of thermocou-
ples is mandatory. If temperatures start to rise, air circulation can be started again
until equilibrium is restored. If a hot spot cannot be controlled, it is prudent to reach
that area as soon as possible by turning part of the seed column (in a tank or silo) or
by digging into the side of the pile (if stored in a at warehouse). This is not a time
to move slowly; tear off the side of the building if that is what it takes to reach a hot
spot. Safower seed seems to be quite hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from wet
material adjacent to it, which in turn causes germination to start, and hence heating.
Safower seed that has heated will char to dark brown to black mass and will devel-
op strong odors that can permeate the storage unit if not separated quickly. This is
not to portray safower seed as a problem seed. Most seed is received in ne con-
dition and stores without problems.
If a problem load is received, it is usually best to process it through a simple
grain cleaner to remove the problem foreign material or, if that is not possible,
to pile the seed in a thin layer on a concrete slab for a few days until it stabilizes.
Safower seed can be dried in forced air grain dryers. It is wise, however, to avoid
letting temperatures in the dryer exceed 82
C to prevent safower oil from scorch-

ing. If necessary, two passes through a dryer are to be preferred to one pass at high
temperatures.
Safower seed is normally not attacked by grain weevils, but these pests
are often attracted to the foreign material contained in seed stored longer than
5 months. Again, careful monitoring is necessary if seed is destined for export.
Treatment with approved fumigants in a timely fashion will avoid having the
shipment graded weevily, which in turn makes the safower seed sample grade
and subject to rejection by the buyer.
Safower seed is quite stable under carriage in ocean vessels. Although natural
separations within the vessels interior are preferred, safower seed can be success-
fully separated from safower bulk cargoes in the hold by a temporary separation
built from layers of plywood, plastic, and burlap.
6.2. Safower Oil
Crude safower oil can be stored and conveyed in normal black-iron vessels or
pipelines without problems. The most important factor is to avoid exposure to air.
526 SAFFLOWER OIL
Safower salad oil, because of its reactivity, should be stored and shipped in
stainless equipment. The USDA in Peoria found that safower was more light
stable than soybean or cottonseed oils but still recommended packaging in brown
bottles (165). It was found that a-tocopherol does little to inhibit photoxidation, and
it has been recommended that brown bottling be used to inhibit photoxidation and
to reduce formation of free radicals, which generate objectional off-avor (166).
The USDA presented an early study of antioxidants (167), and the super qualities
of 2
0
, 4
0
, 5
0
-trihydroxybutyrophenone (TBHQ) have been demonstrated (168). The
limited effects of tempeh oil have been studied (169), and some researchers have
recommended chromans, particularly Trolox C, as producing superior results in sta-
bilizing safower oil (170). TBHQ was the preferred antioxidant when these pro-
ducts were fashionable. In todays world of environmental concerns, the only
antioxidant used is the addition of citric acid during deodorization. If safower sal-
ad oil must be stored, nitrogen sparging and blanketing is recommended.
6.3. Safower Meal
As noted, expeller safower meal is dangerous to store under any conditions. Sol-
vent-extracted safower meal is much more stable and can be stored safely so long
as moisture levels are kept low in storage. Safower meal can hold 10% moisture
under California weather conditions, but it is preferable to maintain it at a 57%
moisture content if storage is for an extended period. Long-term storage in small
diameter tanks should be avoided, because safower meal tends to bridge under
such conditions and become difcult to remove.
7. UNIQUE USES
7.1. Bird Feed
Approximately 60 million people in the United States provide feed for wild birds
(171). Safower seed is employed in many wild bird feeding mixes because of its
high oil content; it is also used to feed caged birds, particularly parakeets and par-
rots. Safower seed is used in the feeding of tame ducks in China and Taiwan and
for tame pigeons in Europe. Safower elds are considered excellent venues in the
United States by hunters of white wing dove and pheasants, and safower is often
planted at duck clubs to attract ducks and pheasants.
7.2. Ornamental
Safower seeds and owers were used in Egypt to make ornaments, wreaths, and
jewelry (172). Horticultural use is limited because of safowers prickly foliage, but
it is employed in some places for this reason as a protection for other plants against
children and dogs. The spineless varieties are often used by Spanish and Portuguese
farmers as garden owers and as sources of food coloring. More recently, the red or
UNIQUE USES 527
orange owers of spineless safower have been harvested and then either dried or
sold as a fresh display by orists. If dried carefully, safower plants and owers
retain their color and can be used for years in a static display.
7.3. Food Coloring
Safower has been employed as a source of color and avor in cooking in every
country where it has been grown with the exception of the countries that have
started large-scale commercial production in the last 40 years. Except for recent
immigrants, safower has not been extensively so used in the United States. Refer-
ences on the use of safower orets in cooking are available (1,3). In the areas of
Spain and Portugal where saffron is grown, elds of safower exist that the local
farmers do not like to acknowledge. Almost surely it was being used as an adulter-
ant to the much more expensive saffron.
7.4. Dye
Another ancient use for safower is to make dyes. The principal dye, carthamin, is a
bright red colorant that is extracted from red-owered plants after the yellow dye
has been leached with water. Carthamin (C
43
H
42
O
22
) imparts a scarlet red color to
silk and cotton (173176). Fine examples of its durability from ancient times can be
found in museums in Egypt, China, and Japan (3). Safower yellow pigment
(C
16
H
20
O
11
) must be removed to allow the red dye to be extracted; in earlier times
the yellow was discarded. A factory has been established in Xinjiang, China, to
manufacture large quantities of both types of dye (173).
7.5. Medicinal
Safower seed, pollen, orets, and oil have been used for medicinal purposes
almost since cultivation began. In the rst century A.D., Pliny wrote that safower
oil, called oleum cnicium, was used as a milder substitute for castor oil, and Ped-
anius Dioscorides, in De Materia Medica (the leading Western pharmacological
text for 16 centuries), described the use of safower to color and avor various
potions and unguents and to act as mild laxatives and avoring agents (157).
Several Arab texts dating to 10001500 mention safower as an antidote for poi-
sons and as an agent to induce sweating as a fever cure (172). Known as Kusumbha
oil, safower was regarded as a purgative in ancient Africa and India. Charred saf-
ower oil is used in India as a treatment for sores and rheumatism, and safower
seeds are employed as diuretics and tonics (177). China has a long history of use of
all parts of the safower plant in medicinals combined with many herbal products.
A tea is manufactured in Beijing (178), and a polyamino acid nutrient is manufac-
tured from safower protein isolates in inner Mongolia. Many discussions on
ancient and modern Chinese medicine are available (7, 173).
USP safower oil has been used as a carrier for penicillin. Data on use of saf-
ower oil as a vehicle for injection of androgens (179) have been published, and it
528 SAFFLOWER OIL
has been demonstrated that safower oil could be used as a dipersant for solutions
of intravenous feedings of dextrose (109).
7.6. Cosmetic
Safower orets were used to color ceremonial ointments in Egyptian tombs (10).
The Journal of American College of Toxicology published a report on the safety of
safower oil in 1981. The article concluded that safower oil was safe as a cosmetic
ingredient in the current practices of use (180). Oleic safower is considered
equally safe, and safower oil was found to be nonallergenic (181).
Powdered safower orets have been employed since ancient times as a rouge in
Egypt, China, and Japan, where it was known as beni (7, 177). The Misehnz of
ancient Hebrew literature speaks of safowers use as a rouge (182). It was mixed
with French chalk and used as a rouge in old England (9). Soot from charred saf-
ower plants was used until recently as the source of kohl, a cosmetic used to dar-
ken the eyelids of Egyptian women (183). In India, safower oil is used as an
ingredient in soap and the preparation of Macassar hair oil (180).
TABLE 13. Supply of Potential Biodiesel Feedstocks.
Oil Type Total Oil Production
a
Pounds Gallons
b
Millions
Crops
Total 20,030 2,601.3
Soybean 14,935 1,939.6
Corn 2,076 269.6
Cottonseed 1,220 158.4
Sunowerseed 868 112.7
Canola 353 45.8
Peanut 282 36.6
Flaxseed/linseed 175 22.7
Safower 118 15.3
Rapeseed 3 0.4
Animal fat
Total 8,772 1,139.2
Lard 1,026 133.2
Edible tallow 1,490 193.5
Inedible tallow 3,623 470.5
Yellow grease 2,633 341.9
Total supply 28,802 3,740.5
a
Pounds of oil production are a 3-year average (19931995) from Oil Crops
Yearbook, October 1997, USDA, ERS with the following exceptions: rapeseed
was calculated by multiplying oil per acre times the 199395 average number
of acres harvested. Number of harvested acres comes from USDA, NASS,
January 1996. Inedible tallow and yellow grease supply comes from U.S.
Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fats and Oils, Production,
Consumption and Stocks, Annual Summaries 19931995.
b
Pounds are converted to gallons of oil using a 7.7 pounds-to-gallon
conversion rate.
UNIQUE USES 529
7.7. Biodiesel Fuel
Safower has been examined as a possible biodiesel feedstock. Table 13 is an
example of the amount of oil produced annually in the United States by type of
feedstock. Amounts are reported by weight (i.e., millions of pounds), which are
converted to a liquid volume basis to provide a gallon estimate for each feedstock.
Soybean oil is the largest potential feedstock source for biodiesel. Corn oil, cotton-
seed and sunowerseed are also relatively large contributors to U.S. vegetable oil
supplies. The production of oil from the other feedstocks is minor, ranging from
353 million pounds for canola to around 3 million pounds for industrial rapeseed.
The total production of oil from crops is about 20 billion pounds per year. Animal
fats and yellow grease add about another 8.8 billion pounds, resulting in about 29
billion pounds of total oil.
On a liquid fuel basis, these feedstocks would equal about 3.7 billion gallons
of diesel fuel, about 13% of the 28 billion gallons of diesel fuel consumed in the
United States for transportation in 1996. If biodiesel was blended with petroleum
diesel fuel, e.g., 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum (B20), the total supply of this
blended fuel would be about 18.7 billion gallons, or 67% of U.S. annual diesel
consumption. This example uses the total average supply of all crop oils, animal
fats, and yellow grease as the available feedstock supply (182).
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536 SAFFLOWER OIL

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11

C and does not

C. In the interim period, it goes

C. If safower seed is being harvested from a particularly weedy eld,

C to prevent safower oil from scorch-

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