Tocopherol and Phytosterol Variations in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Germplasms

Sunflower is one of the most widely cultivated oil crops in the world, and it has also been considered as an important crop for biodiesel production. In order to develop sunflower qualities and utilizations we quantified phytosterol and tocopherol variations, and investigated the effects of different collected countries, seed sizes and colors on tocopherol and phytosterol concentrations in 100 sunflower germplasms. Among collected sunflower germplasms from different countries, total tocopherols and phytosterols were showed highest concentrations in Canadian germplasms (232.6 mu g/g) and Chinese germplasms (2581.6 mu g/g), respectively. Among sunflower germplasms of different seed sizes, contents of total tocopherol (225.6 mu g/g) and total phytosterol (2624.0 mu g/g) of small-seed germplasms were both significantly higher than others. Among sunflower germplasms of different seed colors, black seed germplasms revealed the highest contents of total tocopherol (215.2 mu g/g), while brown seed germplasms showed the highest contents of total phytosterol (2417.4 mu g/g). It was observed that total phytosterols showed the positive correlations (r = 0.5295) with total tocopherol contents.