<i>Cephalaria syriaca</i> seed oil

Abstract Cephalaria syriaca shrad., in Turkish pelemir, grows predominantly in the southeastern district of Turkey as a weed in cereal fields. Pelemir seeds are sometimes used for extraction of their oil, as an improver of baking value of wheat, and as an antistaling agent for bread. The seeds contain 7.8% moisture; their chemical composition on a dry basis is: crude fat, 25.3%, crude protein, 15.9%; N‐free extract, 40.4%; crude fiber, 11.9%; crude ash, 6.5%. Characteristics of the seed oil are: specific gravity at 25 C, 0.9229; refractive index at 25 C, 1.4706; saponification value, 192; iodine value, 88.4; thiocyanogen value, 58.8; Reichert‐Meissl value, 0.36; Polenske value, 0.25; unsaponifiable matter, 1.24%; hydroxyl value, 20.9. The fatty acid components are: lauric acid, 1.5%; myristic acid, 19.5%; palmitic acid, 9.4%; stearic acid, 2%; oleic acid, 23.0%; linoleic acid, 36.9%. The chemical composition of extracted cakes on a dry basis is: crude protein, 20.4%; crude fat, 0.8%; N‐free extract, 50.5%; crude ash, 6.4%; crude fiber; 14.4%%; saponin, 7.5%. The oil contains 7.8% epoxy acid, calculated as epoxy oleic acid, which makes its use as an edible oil rather difficult but renders it usable in industries using epoxidized oils. Due to its high content of myristic acid, the oil is very suitable for soapmaking as well.