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Asked by to Amelia, Clem, Izzy, Sarah on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 18 Mar 2014:
Yes! Sunflower oil is made from crushed sunflower seeds.
Most seeds contain fats or oils, because a seed needs to contain all the food and nutrients that the developing plant embryo needs to grow. When a human embryo grows in the mother’s womb it is able to get everything it needs from its mother through the umbilical cord. However, a seed cannot do this. In fact, it is best for plants that the seeds are spread as far as possible from the parents so they don’t have to compete for light, water and soil nutrients. Until the plant embryo develops roots and shoots for itself it is not able to get food and nutrients from it’s surroundings. Therefore the more nutrients the seed contains the faster the embryo will be able to grow and better start it will have in life 🙂
Although all seeds contain fats and oils only some are useful to us. Sunflower oil is one of these as it is very good to use for cooking and for use in some cosmetics.
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Isabel Webb answered on 18 Mar 2014:
Yes – although you need a LOT of seeds to make a bottle of sunflower oil! In a similar way, olive oil comes from olives, and sesame oil comes from sesame seeds.
Different seeds contain different chemicals in their oil stores, and this is what gives the different oils their different tastes and properties. They have the different chemicals because the different plants have different needs as they grow – since they grow in different environments with different pressures on them. We are just lucky that those oils are so useful and tasty for us!
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Sarah Harvey answered on 18 Mar 2014:
It is indeed! This could be one of the reasons why sunflowers are grown on such a large scale in places like France, fields of them look pretty stunning!
It comes from crushed sunflower seeds in the same way that Olive oil is made by pressing olives 🙂
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anon answered on 18 Mar 2014:
yep!
It takes a lot of seeds, but it can be done.
During my masters project I made some, the process is called “cold pressing”
This is done with many other types of seeds too! 🙂
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