Sunflower is grown in different parts of the world and oil from the grain has many uses, including cosmetics and food. Olive leaves are rich in active compounds with potential for industrial use. The simultaneous extraction of raw materials is an economical and sustainable way of using the same extraction process to obtain products with high added value. The aim of this work was to promote the incorporation of bioactive compounds from olive leaves in sunflower oil by two extraction techniques: pressurized propane (PRO) and Soxhlet (SOX) and to evaluate the increase in oxidative stability and antioxidant activity of oils. The techniques used were useful in producing sunflower oil incorporating olive leaf extract (SFO + OLE); 4.3% 1-octacosanol and 5.8% 1-triacontanol were incorporated, and β-sitosterol increased by at least 90%. Also, SFO + OLE showed an increase in the induction time of 2.7 and 3.7 h compared to SFO for the PRO and SOX methods, respectively. The profile of fatty acids was maintained, with the majority in all samples being oleic and linoleic acids. Consequently, with this procedure is possible to produce SFO + OLE with better antioxidant activity and better nutritional characteristics using PRO and SOX. The scaled-up of the simultaneous extraction process via pressurized propane is economically viable according to the process simulation and economic evaluation.

The aim of this work was to maximize the enzymatic aqueous extraction (EAE) of sunflower seed oil using protease enzymes from the evaluation of various temperatures, pH and enzyme concentrations, using a Box-Behnken experimental design. The effect of a thermal pre-treatment of sunflower seeds on free oil yield (FOY) and oil quality was also determined. In the experimental range adopted, a lower temperature (40 °C) provided higher FOY values, as well as the intermediate pH (8.00) and maximum enzyme concentration (9% v/v). Thermal pre-treatment provided an increase in FOY in the initial extraction times (60 to 180 min) and decreased of the extraction time of 4 to 3 h to obtain the highest FOY value (~16%). The fatty acid composition of the oils obtained showed a predominance of oleic (~47.5%) and linoleic acids (~39.5%). The total phytosterol content in the samples was hardly affected by the heat pre-treatment of the seeds, while the fatty acid profile, tocopherol content and oxidative stability were not altered.