Brand born in crisis

Sunflower belongs to the Asteraceae family, the scientific name of this plant – helianthus – is translated from Latin as “sunny flower”. The “sunny flower” was brought to Europe, like corn, by the sailors of Columbus. The Spaniards, who saw the plant in the steppe regions of Peru, were fascinated by the beauty of the golden inflorescence. However, for a long time, the sunflower that bloomed in Spain, France, England, Germany, Holland did not know any other use than decorative – it was just an exotic flower. Until the spring of 1835, the peasant D.I. Bokarev did not sow almost his entire vegetable garden with sunflowers. In autumn, for the first time, he pressed excellent aromatic sunflower oil from the seeds on a home-made oil churn. At first, no one believed his “discovery”, for several years Bokarev arranged, as they would say now, presentations of his butter churn at rural fairs. And by 1860, about 120 such oil-pressing artels were already operating in the Voronezh province. The lands of the Volga region, Kuban, Ukraine began to be sown with this oilseed crop.
In the modern world, breeders have bred many sunflower varieties that are distinguished by high yields and oil content.
The chemical composition of sunflower seeds impresses with its diversity and richness. Sunflower seeds contain a lot of vitamins – A, B, C, D and E. So, in raw seeds of vitamin D, even more than in cod liver. And 50 g of seeds can fill the body’s daily need for vitamin E.