| Safflower Seeds |
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| Product Description: |
Safflower
is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like
annual, usually with many long sharp spines
on the leaves. Plants are 30 to 150 cm tall
with globular flower heads (capitula) and commonly,
brilliant yellow, orange or red flowers which
bloom in July. Each branch will usually have
from one to five flower heads containing 15
to 20 seeds per head. Safflower has a strong
taproot which enables it to thrive in dry climates,
but the plant is very susceptible to frost injury
from stem elongation to maturity. |
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| Traditionally, the crop was grown for its flowers, used for
colouring and flavouring foods and making red and yellow dyes,
especially before cheaper aniline dyes became available, and
in medicines. For the last fifty years or so, the plant has
been cultivated mainly for the vegetable oil extracted from
its seeds. |
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| Safflower oil is flavorless and colorless, and nutritionally
similar to sunflower oil. It is used mainly as a cooking oil,
in salad dressing, and for the production of margarine. It may
also be taken as a nutritional supplement. INCI nomenclature
is Carthamus tinctorius |
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| There are two types of safflower that produce different kinds
of oil: one high in monounsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid)
and the other high in polyunsaturated fatty acid (linoleic acid).
Currently the predominant oil market is for the former, which
is lower in saturates and higher in monounsaturates than olive
oil, for example. |
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| Safflower oil is also used in painting in the place of linseed
oil, particularly with white, as it does not have the yellow
tint which linseed oil possesses. |
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| Safflower is one of humanity's oldest crops, but is a minor
crop today, with about 600,000 t being produced commercially
in more than sixty countries worldwide. India, United States,
and Mexico are the leading producers, with Ethiopia, Kazakhstan,
China, Argentina and Australia accounting for most of the remainder |
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| Safflower flowers are occasionally used in cooking as a cheaper
substitute for saffron, and are thus sometimes referred to as
"bastard saffron." Safflower seed is also used quite
commonly as an alternative to sunflower seed in birdfeeders,
as squirrels do not like the taste of it. |
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| Lana is a strain of Safflower that grows in the southwestern
United States, most notably Arizona and New Mexico |
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