ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Sunflower. Sunflower production may be adapted to mechanized or unmechanized societies. Cultivated primarily for the seeds which yield the world's second most important source of edible oil. Sunflower oil is used for cooking, margarine, salad dressings, lubrication, soaps, and illumination. Sunflower oil has a high concentration of linoleic acid, intermediate level of oleic acid, and very low levels of linolenic acid. Sunflower oil is somewhat unique in that the alpha form predominates, with 608, 17, and 11 mg/kg of alpha, beta, and gamma, compared with 116, 34, and 737, respectively, for soybean oil. As sunflowers have highly efficient root systems, they can be grown in areas which are too dry for many crops.
