An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Helianthus annuus

Helianthus annuus (Asteraceae)

Common Names
Sunflower; Girasol
How this plant is used
Food
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
OLEIC-ACID 18 Seed 36000.0 178000.0 0.48 *
P-COUMARIC-ACID 25 Pollen Or Spore 11.0 *
P-COUMARIC-ACID 25 Seed 900.0 1100.0 2.71 Jim Duke's personal files.
P-CYMENE 16 Flower Rizk, A.F.M. and Al-Nowaihi, A.S., The Phytochemistry of the Horticultural Plants of Qatar, Scientific and Applied Research Centre, University of Qatar.
P-HYDROXY-BENZOIC-ACID 13 Seed Rizk, A.F.M. and Al-Nowaihi, A.S., The Phytochemistry of the Horticultural Plants of Qatar, Scientific and Applied Research Centre, University of Qatar.
PALMITIC-ACID 13 Seed 14250.0 32000.0 -0.04 *
PALMITOLEIC-ACID 2 Seed 490.0 515.0 -0.29 USDA's Ag Handbook 8 and sequelae)
PECTIN 24 Plant 110000.0 1.41 Rizk, A.F.M. and Al-Nowaihi, A.S., The Phytochemistry of the Horticultural Plants of Qatar, Scientific and Applied Research Centre, University of Qatar.
PECTOLINARIGENIN 2 Plant Stitt, Paul. Why George should eat broccoli.
PENTAN-2-ONE 0 Seed *
PENTOSANS 0 Pericarp 240000.0 290000.0 Rizk, A.F.M. and Al-Nowaihi, A.S., The Phytochemistry of the Horticultural Plants of Qatar, Scientific and Applied Research Centre, University of Qatar.
PERILLYL-ACETATE 0 Flower *
PHENYL-ACETALDEHYDE 2 Flower *
PHENYLALANINE 7 Seed 11690.0 48000.0 4.35 *
PHOSPHATIDYL-CHOLINE 2 Seed *
PHOSPHATIDYL-ETHANOLAMINE 0 Seed *
PHOSPHATIDYL-SERINE 0 Seed *
PHOSPHORUS 4 Seed 6930.0 7450.0 0.55 *
PHYLLOQUINONE 5 Seed Oil 0.1 -1.06 *
PHYTATE 0 Seed 16000.0 17030.0 0.58 *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
Diaphoretic? 2 Lawrence Review of Natural Products, Dec-90.
Differentiator 1 *
Disinfectant 1 Martindale's 29th
Diuretic 9 *
DNA-Active 1 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
DNA-Protective 1 *
Dye 1 Merck 11th Edition
Ecbolic 1 *
Edemagenic 1 *
Elastase-Inhibitor 1 *
Emetic 2 *
Emmenagogue 1 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Enterocontractant 1 J. Aromatherapy 4: 22.
Enterorelaxant 2 J. Aromatherapy 4: 22.
Epileptigenic 1 Newall, C. A., Anderson, L. A. and Phillipson, J. D. 1996. Herbal Medicine - A Guide for Health-care Professionals. The Pharmaceutical Press, London. 296pp.
Ergogenic 1 *
Essential 8 Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
Estrogenic 5 *
Expectorant 8 Yamamoto, A., Umemori, S., and Muranishi, S. 1993. Absorption Enhancement of Intrapulmonary Administered Insulin by Various Absorption Enhancers and Protease Inhibitors in Rats. J. Pharm. Pharmacol. 46: 14-18, 1994.
Febrifuge 1 Neuwinger, H. D. 1996. African Ethnobotany - Poisons and Drugs. Chapman & Hall, New York. 941 pp.