Sunflower Cake as a Natural Composite: Composition and Plastic Properties

Abstract

Nowadays, the end-of-life of plastic products and the decrease of fossil energy are great environmental problems. Moreover, with the increase of food and nonfood transformations of renewable resources, the quantities of agro-industrial byproducts and wastes increase hugely. These facts allow the development of plastic substitutes made from agro-resources. Many researches show the feasibility of molding biopolymers extracted from plants like a common polymeric matrix. Other natural macromolecules are used like fillers into polyolefins, for example. However, limited works present results about the transformation of a natural blend of biopolymers into a plastic material. The aim of this study is the determination of the composition of sunflower cake (SFC) and also the characterization of its components. These were identified by chemical and biochemical analysis often used in agricultural or food chemistry. Most of the extraction and purification processes modify the macrostructure of several biopolymers (e.g., denaturation of proteins, cleavage or creation of weak bonds, etc.). So, the composition of different parts of the sunflower seed (husk, kernel, and also protein isolate) was determined, and the plasticlike properties of their components were studied with thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and a dynamic mechanical thermal analysis apparatus. Finally, this indirect way of characterization showed that SFC can be considered a natural composite. In SFC, several components like lignocellulosic fibers [40%/dry matter (DM)], which essentially come from the husk of sunflower seed, can act as fillers. However, other biopolymers like globulins ( approximately 30% of the 30% of sunflower seed proteins/DM of SFC) can be shaped as a thermoplastic-like material because this kind of protein has a temperature of glass transition and a temperature of denaturation that seems to be similar to a melting temperature. These proteins have also viscoelastic properties. Moreover, SFC has similar rheological properties and other physicochemical properties compatible with shaping or molding behaviors of plastic-processing machinery.

Effect of the type and level of hydration of alcoholic solvents on the simultaneous extraction of oil and chlorogenic acids from sunflower seed press cake

“…The chemical composition on a dry basis content of the SPC used in the extraction experiments comprised: 58 ± 4 g kg -1 moisture, 196 ± 7 g kg -1 crude protein, 256 ± 2 g kg -1 oil, 43.0 ± 0.6 g kg -1 ash, 510 ± 10 g kg -1 carbohydrates and 24 ± 2 g kg -1 CAs. These results are in accordance with Baumler et al, 3 and the chlorogenic content is close to the value reported by Geneau-Sbartai et al 35 The relative deviation ( ) of the mass balance of the extraction trials, calculated by Eqn (2), varied from 0.05% to 1.19%, indicating good precision and repeatability of the results. Figure 1 shows the sunflower seed oil yield, expressed as g oil (kg sunflower SPC) -1 (wet basis), and the CA content in sunflower oil (SFO; g kg -1 ) obtained using the process conditions under investigation.…”

“…The chemical composition on a dry basis content of the SPC used in the extraction experiments comprised: 58 ± 4 g kg –1 moisture, 196 ± 7 g kg –1 crude protein, 256 ± 2 g kg –1 oil, 43.0 ± 0.6 g kg –1 ash, 510 ± 10 g kg –1 carbohydrates and 24 ± 2 g kg –1 CAs. These results are in accordance with Baumler et al ., and the chlorogenic content is close to the value reported by Geneau‐Sbartai et al …”

Biobased Materials Production from Biodiesel Residuals of Rapeseed

“…Of the two latter protein sources, soy proteins have been shown potential for production of base materials even stronger than those built on gluten [8,10]. The press cake of oil plants has only been evaluated for material production in a few studies, showing that the rapeseed cake and sunflower cake may be of potential interest for production of composite materials [7,17,18]. The use of press cakes or flours that also contain other substances than just proteins may thus have the potential to be used directly as composite materials instead of having to add fibres, thereby risking that the protein matrix and the fibres do not bind properly to each other [19].…”

Sustainable sunflower processing — I. Development of a process for the adsorptive decolorization of sunflower [Helianthus annuus L.] protein extracts

“…The seeds contain about 20% of protein, whereas protein contents of the oil press cakes and extraction residues vary from 30% for strawy press cake to 50% for press cake obtained from dehulled seeds (Dorrell & Vick, 1997;Geneau-Sbartai, Leyris, SIlvestre & Rigal, 2008). Sunflower proteins prove to be of great interest for human nutrition, especially due to their nutritional and bio-functional properties but also because of their sensory characteristics (Sodini & Canella, 1977).…”

“…Furthermore, polyphenol pre-extraction using acidic or saline media prior to alkaline protein recovery (O'Connor, 1971a;Pearce, 1984, Domínguez, Núnez & Lema, 1995 and the separation of phenolic compounds via membrane filtration after basic protein extraction under inert gas have been proposed (O'Connor, 1971b). As a consequence of major drawbacks of these solutions, Pickardt et al (2009) developed a method for mild-acidic extraction of sunflower seed proteins using sodium chloride to enhance protein solubility, both of the globulin -the major fraction of sunflower proteins -and the albumin fraction (Geneau-Sbartai et al, 2008) and to facilitate the removal of unbound phenolic compounds from the extracts, which is a prerequisite to obtain colorless protein products.…”