Tomato Seed Oil

[John3]

I was reading some articles on natural oils from seeds (like Sunflowers) that can be used to cook with and in one article it mentioned Tomato Seed Oil for cooking. I think it said the crude processing of the seeds would make good oil for cooking with. Anyways, after google searching I found out Tomato Seed Oil is used for many things and mentions different ways to get the oil from the seeds. But, the crude processing of the seeds for oil was never given.

Crude processing of tomato seeds for oil.
Does anyone know how it is done? Can it be done on the farm, home kitchen, etc.

[rockhound]

You will need a huge amount of seeds.

[John3]

rockhound thanks for the reply.
Have you made Tomato Seed Oil? if so how did you go about doing so.
Any links to information on how it's done for a home gardener or small farm.

Doing some research and found out that Watermelon seeds are used for their oils - creams, shampoo etc

[Doug9345]

I'd assume you'd do it the same way you do any other seed oil. Grind the seed up, press it hard, and separate the resulting liquid into oil and water. The other choice would be to use a solvent.

[John3]

Would you say it could be done with a Sunflower seed oil extractor? Maybe you do need a lot of tomato seeds to get enough oil to cook with and that got me thinking - tomato seeds, grape seeds and sunflower seeds from the home garden or small farm might make enough cooking oil for basic cooking for a year. I think there are some other seeds that their oil can be used for cooking oil. Which leads me to the the question can you add these different kinds of seed oils together in the same container - thereby using the blend to cook with?

A few other seeds I think you can cook with from their oil.
Safflower
Sesame

[Doug9345]

It's math time.
One source says tomato seed is between 20% and 36% oil.
This source http://www.appropedia.org/Original:S...l_Extraction_6 shows sesame seed oil extraction as being around 60% efficient.
The specific density of Tomato seed oil is .918
The density of water is 2.1 lb/quart
That means a quart of Tomato Seed Oil weighs 1.9 lbs.

That means you need 3.2 lbs of oil in the seed to make a quart pressed.
At 25% oil that means you need 12.8 lbs of tomato seed. There is around 7500 seeds per ounce.
12.8 lbs of tomato seed = 16 x 7500 x 12.8 = 1.5 million tomato seed. I just counted 37 seeds in 1/2 of a locule in a 5 locule tomato and found 37 seed. That means there is about 370 seeds in a large store bought tomato. 1,500,000 / 375 = 4000 tomatoes to make one quart of tomato seed oil. Or using 2.5 tomatoes per pound 1600 lbs of tomatoes.

If it has a stong flavor where a little goes a long way like sesame oil then 50 lbs of tomatoes to make an ounce of tomato oil is in the realm of home reasonable.

This site is selling tomato seed oil for $29 for 100ml thats about $8.50 per ounce.
It's guess it's time to start breading seedy tomatoes.

Sunflower, corn and soybeans you can definitely grow enough for home use. I was to a farm show last weekend and they had a farm size processor for soybean and corn. I assume that you could use it for other similar sized seed.

I suspect that tomato seed oil would have too much flavor to blend willy nilly with other oils. I know the little bottle of sesame ooil is very strong flavored.

[John3]

"guess it's time to start breading seedy tomatoes. " Sounds like a job for Tom Wagner the tomato and potato Man

Thanks for providing the link - very good information on other types of seeds for oil.

Talking about seedy tomatoes I think I read somewhere that one of the paste tomatoes had a lot of seeds which is grown because it's flavor is excellent. Might not get to 1,500,000 seeds but would have a lot of tomato paste trying

At $8.50 per ounce I doubt they are using it for cooking oil - kinda wonder the other uses are for.

"Sunflower, corn and soybeans you can definitely grow enough for home use. I was to a farm show last weekend and they had a farm size processor for soybean and corn. I assume that you could use it for other similar sized seed."
The watermelon seeds I would think fall under that category - but they are used for creams, soaps, shampoos, etc. So the machine would have to be able to exchange screens (or whatever would need to be cleaned up) so as to go back to the cooking oil seeds.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by John3

At $8.50 per ounce I doubt they are using it for cooking oil - kinda wonder the other uses are for.

I've read cosmetics and natural health uses especially skin care and it's an antioxident.
http://www.essentialoilco.com/tomato-seed-oil.html has it at a much better price and they talk some about it's uses.

Apparently it deteriorates quickly
http://www.actahort.org/members/show...knrarnr=823_30




You've got me thinking about all kinds of seeds that I could produce oil out off.

[John3]

"You've got me thinking about all kinds of seeds that I could produce oil out off."
Funny how researching one thing and then it goes off into another.

"I was to a farm show last weekend and they had a farm size processor for soybean and corn. I assume that you could use it for other similar sized seed."
Do you remember the company or the name of the machine?

The articles you linked to are really good. It would be nice to find the papers from the 1914 research.

I did find this article
Characteristics and composition of tomato seed oil", Grasas y Aceites 49: 440–445
http://www.teilar.gr/dbData/Dimosiey...20PUB%20S1.pdf

Culinary Imports sells it for salads and food dishes
http://www.culinary-imports.com/stoger-tomato-seed-oil/

Here an article I think they trying to work upon from the 1911 research
Added value to the tomato through the seeds, the basis of a functional oil

http://www.postharvest.biz/en/news/a...oil/_id:79147/

Talking about research leading into other directions I just found out that the okra seeds produce a oil that is usable (not sure if you can eat it.
quote-
"Greenish-yellow edible okra oil is pressed from okra seeds; it has a pleasant taste and odor, and is high in unsaturated fats such as oleic acid and linoleic acid.[9] The oil content of some varieties of the seed can be quite high, about 40%. Oil yields from okra crops are also high. At 794 kg/ha, the yield was exceeded only by that of sunflower oil in one trial.[10] A 1920 study found that a sample contained 15% oil.[11] A 2009 study found okra oil suitable for use as a biofuel.[12]"

It's kinda funny that these research projects where done in the 1910s and 1920s and more modern research isn't be found easily.

[John3]

I think I found the tomato seed oil 1911 research
United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 632 (Nov. 30, 1917)
http://books.google.com/books?id=pkX...search&f=false

I think this is a better copy
http://ia700800.us.archive.org/1/ite...ofwa00raba.pdf

[Doug9345]

To answer you question about the oil extraction press.
http://www.energrow.ca/
http://newyorkfarmshow.com/video.asp...an-meal-8-1545

I didn't look it over very close.

[John3]

Thanks Doug9345 for the links on the machine and the video. Wonder if it can do okra seeds.

Here's some interesting reading
Oilseed Processing for Small-Scale Producers
http://www.cyberlipid.org/oilseed2008.pdf
SMALL-SCALE OILSEED PROCESSING
http://www.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/oilseed.pdf
Oilseed Processing for Small-Scale Producers
http://ieham.org/html/docs/Oilseed_P..._Producers.pdf
Oil Extraction
http://www.rivendellvillage.org/oil_extraction.pdf