Interview with Inventor

Interview with Prof. Anatoliy Velikorodov, Head of the Chair of Organic, Inorganic, & Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Supervisor of the research project “Obtainment Technique & Fatty-Acid Composition of Oil of Gossipium Hirsutum Seeds”.

– What’s the aim of your project?

– We carried it out jointly with the National Research Institute of Vegetable Farming & Melon Cultivation. Its Director Mikhail Puchkov is our coauthor. Our development aims to obtain oil from seeds of cotton-plant – the sort that’s cultivated in Astrakhan Region.

– Where can your project be applied?

– It’s applicable in a number of fields. It’s applied in the food, cosmetic, and chemical industries, as well as in a number of other areas.

– What are the advantages of your invention over similar products?

– There are some similar products at the market, but they are obtained only by means of cold press. As a result, cottonseed oil contains a large amount of gossypol, which is a toxic compound. We obtain our product with the “green” technique of supercritical fluid extraction. Application of the new method of fat oil extraction helped us reduce the concentration of gossypol up to trace quantities.

– What are the commercialization prospects of your product?

– Together with the National Research Institute of Vegetable Farming & Melon Cultivation, which supplies us with seeds, we’re working through the issue of commercialization. We believe we could attract investors. We’ll have to study the market carefully, as well as opportunities of industrial obtainment of oil.

Interviewed by T.Yu. Gavrilkina (the Web Resources Information Support Directorate of ASU)

Translated by E.I. Glinchevskiy (the Center of Translation Studies & Conference Interpreting “ASTLINK” of ASU)