The investigation of fatty acid composition of safflower (Carthamus persicus Wild) plant

In this study the changes in the fatty acid composition have been examined by following the growing up period from flower to seed of safflower plant (Carthamus persicus Wild) which is collected from the nature. From our results, in the patterns of flowers collected from Tunceli and Malatya, it has been seen that the basic fatty acid is linoleic acid and following this fatty acid is palmitic, linolenic, oleic and stearic acid in order. As being different from the patterns of Malatya and Tunceli, in the patterns of flowers collected in Elazığ, this listing has been observed in this way : Palmitic, linoleic, myristic, linolenic, oleic, stearic acid. In the patterns of seed collected in each three region of collection it has been also observed that linoleic acid has preserved its feature of being fatty acid and other fatty acids have been listed as oleic, palmitic and stearic acid by increasing their quantities. It has been seen that the quantitiy of linolenic acid has decreased as not be able to guess as. The high level of linoleic acid quantity is an important feature in terms of oil quality. It has been observed that the results in Carthamus persicus Wild have too many resemblances with the composition of fatty acid of Carthamus tinctorius L. which is used by people in alternative medical science, paint and food industry on a vest scale.