Oleic conversion effect on the tocopherol and phytosterol contents in sunflower oil

In sunflower, conventional breeding is widely used for the modification of traits such as the fatty acid composition, disease resistance, and mainly for obtaining commercial oil with high oleic acid content. There is a growing interest on tocopherols and phytosterols present in sunflower, due to their human health benefits. This emphasizes the need of studies on breeding programs for these bioactive components. A hundred of isogenic pairs of classic and its oleic version of hybrids and parental lines were cultivated in different locations in France between 2003 and 2006. The results indicated that sunflower oil is rich in a-tocopherol and P-sitosterol. However, there was little correlation between traditional linoleic and oleic sunflower oils for the total tocopherol content, and no correlation for the total phytosterol content. Additionally, there was little or no effect of the oleic conversion for the tocopherol and phytosterol contents. Nevertheless, tocopherol content was significantly lower in the oleic sunflower than in the classic genotypes, but it was function of the year.