Sunflower Sunflower oil is comprised primarily of palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids, with oleic and linoleic accounting for about 90% of the total fatty acid content in the conventional oil. It has been recognized that there is an inverse relationship between oleic and linoleic acid, which is highly influenced by environment, especially temperature during the growing season. Under the cool northern climates, sunflower seed has high linoleic acid-content in contrast to high oleic acid of seed produced under warmer southern areas.Whileahighlinoleicacidconcentrationisdesirableinsunfloweroilsusedinsoftmargarinesandsalad
dressings,higholeicacidcontentispreferredformany otherapplications,sinceoleic acidis oxidativelymore stable than linoleic acid. As a consequence, oxidative stability of conventional crude sunflower oil derived from seed grown in southern climates is nearly twice that of crude oil extracted from northern-grownseed.