I. MAREKOV1, M. ZLATANOV2 and M. ANGELOVA-ROMOVA2
1 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry, BG-1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
2 University of Plovdiv “P. Hilendarski”, Department of Chemical Technology, BG-4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
MAREKOV, I., M. ZLATANOV and M. ANGELOVA-ROMOVA, 2010. Sterol composition of oils from bulgarian varieties of sunflower. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 158-162
The composition of sterols and sterol esters and the fatty acid composition of sterol esters in the glyceride oil isolated from the seeds of nine Bulgarian sunflower varieties were examined. The total sterol content was estimated to be 3-4 g.kg-1 with the amount of free sterols - 658-790 g.kg-1 and that of sterol esters - 471-700 g.kg-1. b-Sitosterol was the main component in both sterol fractions followed by stigmasterol and campesterol. Palmitic acid was the main fatty acid component (225-485 g.kg-1) in sterol ester fraction, followed by oleic (203-420 g.kg-1) and linoleic (81-176 g.kg-1) acid.