Extraction Method and Solvent Effect on Safflower Seed Oil Production

As a result of an increased world population, a new trend of producing vegetable oils from alternative vegetables/plants rather than sunflower and soy bean has arisen. Safflower, soybean, dotter (camelina), rapeseed (colza), canola are the examples of these alternative vegetables where specifically safflower attracted great interest owing to its linoleic acid rich content. In this study, we aimed to evaluate oil production from safflower seeds using different kinds of solvents (diethyl ether, petroleum ether, hexane, acetone and ethanol) and extraction methods (classical solvent extraction, Soxhlet extraction and ultrasonic extraction) and compare them in terms of the process viability and the composition of final product at various parameters. Our results showed that ultrasonic extraction method is more advantageous than traditional methods in terms of the time and solvent consumption in which the highest yield was obtained with the diethyl ether whereas ethanol showed the least. Keywords: Safflower, ultrasonic, classical solvent, Soxhlet, extraction, linoleic acid