Fatty Acid Profiles of Oil Obtained from Mid‐Oleic Sunflowers Grown in Tropical Region

This study aimed to verify whether the fatty acid profiles of mid-oleic genotypes grown in the tropical region of Brazil fit the Codex Alimentarius and to examine the possibility of using traditional inbred lines to produce high-oleic hybrids. For this purpose, we assessed the fatty acid profile of six mid-oleic hybrids grown in environments with different minimum temperatures during oil formation in the achenes. The tests were conducted between 2015 and 2017 in an experimentally randomized complete block design with four replications. The oleic, linoleic, palmitic, and stearic acid contents were determined using gas chromatography. The mid-oleic hybrids presented varying levels of fatty acids, with oleic acid ranging between 43.6% and 84.6%, linoleic acid between 8.5% and 45.6%, palmitic acid between 3.9% and 5.7%, and stearic acid between 2.2% and 6.2%. Some of the fatty acid values were outside the ranges established by the CODEX STAN 210-1999 and were characteristic of high-oleic type sunflowers. This finding shows that we can take advantage of the potential of combining traditional inbred lines to produce high-oleic hybrids for faster and more economical breeding programs in these environments.