Helianthus annuus, an annual plant of the daisy (Asteraceae) family, grown mainly for the valuable oil obtained from the seeds. These typically contain 35–45 per cent by weight of oil; they are also a popular and nutritious snack food, raw or roasted and salted.
The sunflower is remarkable for its height (up to 3.5 m/12′) and the size of its flower heads (the record is a diameter of 75 cm/30″). A flower head may contain several hundred (or even up to 2,000) seeds. The name sunflower (and the generic name Helianthus, which means the same) is probably derived from the resemblance of the yellow flower head to the sun; but it may have to do with the plant's habit of keeping its maturing flower head turned towards the sun, so that it faces east at dawn and west at dusk. The French name tournesol suggests this, as do the Italian, Spanish, and Chinese names.
The plant thrives in a sunny temperate climate, and withstands a wide range of temperatures. It is native to N. America, where several species are still common in the wild. H. annuus had been taken into cultivation, and the higher-yielding type with a single flower had been developed, long before Europeans arrived. The native Indians dried or roasted the seeds, then milled them into a meal which could be made into cakes or added to soup. They also extracted oil from the seeds by boiling them.
When the sunflower was introduced to Europe in the 16th century, at first to Spain, it was treated as an ornamental plant. However, in the early 18th century Peter the Great took it to Russia, where a chance circumstance caused it to become an important food plant. The Church banned the eating of oily plants on fast days, but the sunflower, being a recent introduction, was not on the list drawn up by the clerics. The laity, who were sharper eyed, took to chewing the seeds—raw, roasted, or salted—and, later, to extracting oil from them (a practice first essayed in Bavaria in the 1720s). Russia subsequently became the largest grower of sunflowers. In Europe, Romania and Poland also grow large amounts, as do Yugoslavia and Turkey.
Cultivation was started in Argentina in 1870, and greatly increased in the 1930s, when the Spanish Civil War made Spanish olive oil unobtainable. Argentina later became the second largest producer, overtaking the USA.
Most cultivation in N. America is carried out in the north of the Great Plains region, e.g. in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and neighbouring Manitoba in Canada. Since sunflower oil is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (linoleic, oleic), the American sunflower industry received a boost in the 1970s when the movement towards polyunsaturated cooking oils gathered momentum. ‘Sunoil’, as it is known, also benefits from having no cholesterol.
Special varieties of sunflower have been bred to produce maximum yields of oil. It is the principal cooking oil in Russia; much used in E. Europe; and ranks about sixth as a cooking oil in India.
The seeds have a pleasant, slightly sweet taste. Besides constituting a snack food, highly nutritious and particularly well liked by Russians, they are used extensively in confectionery.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Heiser, Charles B. (1976), The Sunflower, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
