Determination of the quality of safflower oil and investigation of potential use as edible oil

This research was performed in the framework of a TÜBİTAK-1003 research project conducted between 2015 and 2016 with the joint work of ITOB Organized Industrial Zone treatment plant, Ege University Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Food Engineering Departments. In this study, quality and physicochemical properties of oil were determined for the seeds of safflower plants cultivated by using treated wastewater. At the first part of this study (2015), wastewater treated by membrane bioreactor (MBR) system and tap water were used as irrigation water. Also, safflower is cultivated without irrigation. Second part of study (2016), in addition to these conditions, wastewater treated with nanofiltration (NF) and by reverse osmosis (RO) were also employed for irrigation. Oil production from the obtained safflower seeds was carried out using the Soxhlet extraction method with n-hexane solvent and crude oil yields of oils were determined. Quality and physicochemical properties of safflower oils such as fatty acid and sterol composition, acidity and peroxide value, density, refractive index, iodine and saponification value have been determined. Safflower oils have been examined for their consumability as edible oil. Analysis results of obtained safflower oils and commercially available cold press safflower oils were compared with standard values for safflower oil in Turkish Food Codex 'Vegetable Oils Communiqué'. In general, the values were found to be appropriate.