Yield and Phytosterol Composition of Oil Extracted from Grain Sorghum and Its Wet-Milled Fractions.

Corn fiber contains an oil with high levels of three potential cholesterol-lowering phytosterol compounds. Little information is available about the levels and types of phytosterols in sorghum. In this study, phytosterols were evaluated in grain sorhgum and its wet-milled fractions and were compared with the phytosterols in corn. The study showed that sorghum kernels can provide a significant source of two phytosterol classes, free phytosterols (St) and fatty acyl phytosterol esters (St:E). Most of these phytosterols are concentrated in the wet-milled fiber fraction followed by the germ fraction. In addition to phytosterols, other lipid classes such as wax esters and an aldehyde (50% C28 and 50% C30) are also present in the sorghum oil. Comparison of sorghum and corn kernels show that corn has 72-93% more phytosterols than sorghum.