Abstract
This study was carried out to investigate the impact of harvest time (HT) and sowing time (ST) on the oil content, fatty acid composition, physicochemical properties, antiradical potential and oxidative stability of oils recovered from different safflower cultivars. In this work, three safflower cultivars (cv. Yenice, cv. Dinçer and cv. Remzibey-05) were grown in spring and autumn and harvested at three different times (2 weeks after flowering, 4 weeks after flowering and at maturity). Examined parameters of safflower seeds and oil samples from different cultivars varied according to cultivar, ST and HT. Moisture content was higher in the seeds from autumn sowing than spring sowing. The highest oil content (25.8 %) was recorded for Dinçer cultivar. The main four fatty acids (palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic) accounted for about 99 % of total fatty acids. The peroxide value PV (0.72 meqO
2
/kg) of oil from autumn sowing was higher than the PV (0.46 meqO
2
/kg) from spring sowing. Rancimat value of seed oil from Remzibey-05 (6.38 h) cultivar was the highest followed by Yenice (5.08 h) and Dinçer (5.41 h) cultivars. The radical scavenging activity (76.8 %) of the oils from spring sowing was higher than the radical scavenging activity (73.0 %) of the oils from autumn sowing. The findings showed that the oxidative stability of oils from autumn sowing was stronger than that of oils from spring sowing. In addition, delaying HT has decreased oxidative stability of oils.