Johanna Budwig at work in her lab.
I often feel like an infant crying in the dark forest with no one around to pay heed. I cannot stress how important it is to supplement your Budwig protocol with a high quality, unrefined, cold-pressed seed oil that is high in the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), Linoleic acid (LA)!  The best and cheapest way to obtain such an oil is to press it yourself! Too many commercial cold-pressed oils are rancid or going there, plus pricey to boot.

 Dr. Budwig appreciated how important Linoleic acid was in her protocol, but for some unknown reason, she seemed to settle on flax oil as her oil of choice which consists of 57% Omega-3, Linolenic Acid (ALA) versus 16% Omega-6 (LA)!  Linoleic Acid (LA) is what we actually need more of!  If interested, go to that page for my reasoning (click tab on right). Dr. Budwig did not have a realistic view of the proper Omega-6 to 3 ratio during her career. I think a pretty good clue of how much and what proportion of those two we needed can be concluded just from how much tissues are composed of in a healthy human. For instance:

Brain/nerves….............................…..Omega-6 to 3 is       100:1

Skin……….........................………….Omega-6 to 3 is     1000:1

General organs and tissue….......…….Omega-6 to 3 is          4:1

Adipose tissue…………………....…….Omega-6 to 3 is        22:1

Muscle……………………….…………..Omega-6 to 3 is        6.5:1

Linoleic Acid (LA) has long been proven to be the major PUFA that is involved in our cell's mitochondrial proper health. Linoleic Acid is important in the functioning of an effective electron transfer chain found in the mitochondria of which Dr. Budwig so well appreciated and wrote about. Linoleic acid is a prime component of Cardiolipin that is found in the inner membrane of mitochondria. The flax oil rich Omega-3 (ALA) is not found in that membrane to any great volume!  In short, what I am trying to convey here is that Flax oil is good and has performed miracles just by its own supplementation--probably because of its meager but potent 16% LA content, but if you want the true power of the Budwig protocol to blossom, you better supplement with a high Linoleic acid oil along with flax oil which is in itself, high in  the omega-3, linolenic acid (ALA). Both work synergistically as Budwig has often stressed.

I would like to also stress here that there is a very good reason why the inner membrane of the Mitochondria has very little of the triple bond Omega-3 Linolenic acid in it as compared to the double-bonded Omega-6 Linoleic acid. From reading much of Dr. Budwig's writings, she seemed to think the triple bond of Linolenic acid was even more important in oxygen uptake than the double-bonded Linoleic acid, though she knew both were extremely important. This is really quite wrong! If you study biology, you know that the Goldilocks Principle is very evident throughout. There are certain conditions that are most hospitable for life. Too much of something or too little of something will have disastrous effects on a healthy organism. This principle applies to the PUFAs as well. The more complex the bonds of the PUFAs, the more reactive they are to oxygen and the more likely they oxidize becoming rancid. The Omega-6 Linoleic acid with its two double-bonds has just enough attraction for oxygen where its electrons can latch onto oxygen in the mitochondria's inner-membrane and act as a reversible carrier. The omega-3, triple-bonded Linolenic acid would prove too reactive for this task as would even the higher 5 & 6 double-bonds seen in fish oil's EPA and DHA which is why we see neither in any substantial volumes in the mitochondria!  In commercial retail, fish oil and flax oil are a lot more likely to go rancid than the Omega-6 Linoleic acid oils. Same is true in the mitochondria. Just the right oxygen reactivity is all important with this task of carrying oxygen from outside the mitochondria membrane to the inner structure where it can produce ATP. If the Omega-3 Linolenic acid was the prime PUFA in the mitochondria, it would be more likely to suffer rancidity on contact with oxygen resulting in no reversible qualities which are so needed for oxygen uptake and diffusion. There would be irreversibly auto-oxidization when reversibility is a must.


I want to tell you my experiences with taking a DIY sunflower black seed oil. As far as I know, I have no serious health problems, but I have been for the last few years plagued with vision problems. I seem to have a slight double vision that often would come-and-go in the beginning, but has since become much more permanent. It was getting so bad that when driving, I would shut one eye to avoid the double vision effect that was most irritating when there were oncoming cars or I had a median line in my vision! I also had problems reading the menu on TV screens at night though I didn't really notice double-vision when an actual image was on TV. I have been pressing my own flax seed oil and mixing it in cottage cheese/quark for at least 3 years prior without it seemingly having any effect on my worsening vision.  Then, I decided to add sunflower oil to the mixture at about a 3:1 ratio in favor of sunflower oil over flax oil about 6 weeks ago as I am writing this. Well, within about 3 weeks on this new oil supplementation, my vision was suddenly much improved. I had not expected this to remotely occur! No more double vision or shutting of one eye! I swear, I did nothing else that I can think of other than adding sunflower oil, an unadulterated high linoleic acid seed oil! I am convinced that this is a pretty good clue how important linoleic acid is to our over all tissue health! I suspect if one is trying to overcome cancer, one should not rely on only flax oil with such a low Linoleic acid content!

To back up my claim of improved eye health, there are a number of scientific studies out there that links the Omega-6 Linoleic acid to treating dry eye syndrome in modern medicine. A 2017 study had this to say: "The retina is rich in lipids derived from essential ω3 and ω6 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), which are critical for many retinal functions. Since humans lack key enzymes to synthesizeα linolenic acid (ω3) and linoleic acid (ω6), they must be obtained through dietary sources (SanGiovanni and Chew, 2005)." 

I also just translated a German text by Dr. Budwig entitled, Das Fettsyndrom (Fat Syndrome). She wrote how the seed oils effect the mucilaginous system of the body and the eyes:

"Effects of fat metabolism on the function of the sensory organs:

The sense organs are closely linked to the function of the brain. This is most evident in the eye. The retina and the visual conduction are to be understood as parts of the diencephalon. The visual fields and visual impressions are dependent on brain function and nerve conduction. The anatomical prerequisites for the intact function of vision and optical impression are very complicated. Here, only a few facts are to be pointed out which have not been considered enough so far: the particularly important mucilaginous substances in the eye naturally require the surface-active fats which serve to build up the mucilaginous substances. The following facts should be even more plausible: Behind the eyeball in the eye socket, surrounded by the muscle strands that rotate the eyeball and direct the line of sight, there is a fat body. This fat is retained as fat for a long time, even with severe emaciation. It has been observed that especially in cancer patients, it shrinks so that the eye sinks back strongly. Is it any wonder that these patients, after a short change to the oil-protein diet, report that their eyesight and visual acuity have improved? Not only in cancer patients, whenever the consistency of the orbital fat became too hard due to incorrect fat nutrition, or the fat mass in the connective tissue disappeared, better vision was restored by normalization of the fat nutrition. A very skeptical ophthalmologist answered before she intensively dealt with my new view of these connections: "These are purely optical, physical data, which are changed there. The distances cannot be influenced." Yes, they can be influenced. They depend not least on the consistency of the orbital fat behind the eyeball. But lens opacity and other symptoms of eye disease are also associated with fat metabolism. In corneal diseases, there is often a lack of the smoothing component that constantly greases the cornea with a lipoid layer. The consistency of the fats in the lid talc glands is not insignificant. Much could still be said about the function of the eye as a function of body fat. The dependence of the formation of the visual purple on the interaction of unsaturated fats with sulphurous protein can be proven, and Tyng-fei-Hwang in China has already pointed out the importance of this. These indications may be sufficient to show that the eye function is strongly influenced by good or bad greasing.

"As far as the function of the brain is concerned, I would just like to briefly outline which factors bear tangible witness to a relation to fat metabolism. Its significance for the elasticity of the joints will be discussed later. It also plays a role in the hearing (hammer joint). More impressive is the observation of an ear, nose and throat specialist. He asked me how it could be explained that people today all have too dry earwax. Today this has to be rinsed out very often as a plug, whereas in the past it was hardly necessary according to the experience of this old doctor. Earwax is simply no longer supple enough today! The eardrum thus loses its elasticity. Quite simple: Both have to be oiled better with the biologically active highly unsaturated fat, which is capable of attaching to the protein components and keeps the protein in the eardrum supple. It is important for the function of the auditory system that the fatty acids can penetrate to the outer layer. How strongly the fat food influences the secretion of ear wax has also been impressively proven by H. Dam recently in animal experiments.

We could observe the regaining of the already lost hearing within a few weeks, when a domestic worker in the doctor's household took part in the Lö protein food, which this doctor ate because he himself had a stomach tumor. The regulation of the balance, the occurrence of dizziness or rapid adaptation after changes in space (flying, mountaineering, fluctuations in air pressure) depend on the nature of the endolymph in the archways of the inner ear. Abnormal calcium deposits, which can disturb the sensory organs there, are also, like the entire calcium metabolism, strongly dependent on the fat metabolism (according to P. Desnuelle).

The function of all sensory organs, including smell and taste, is influenced by the elasticity of the tissue and the elasticity, the electrical dipolarity, in the maintenance of which the sulphur-containing proteins together with the vital highly unsaturated fats have a considerable share. Certainly many other functions also play a role. Only the fundamentally important constituent part of fat is still endangered to the extreme and thus the most elementary process in the function of all sensory organs."


     Normally, the Budwig Protocol is considered and known as a cancer treatment. One doesn't realize it is good for so many other things and in my case, eyes!




     Cardiolipin is a major component of Mitochondrial inner membranes and is largely made up of Linoleic Acid. The following study suggests how important Linoleic acid is.  Note that you see the Omega-3 Linolenic acid mentioned no where!  The researchers most assuredly did not DIY press their own unrefined Linoleic seed oil, but probably relied on lab sources that involved adulterated refined Linoleic acid within their study which you can be assured, skewed results to some extent.


Chem Phys Lipids. 2015 Apr;187:50-5. doi: 10.1016/j.chemphyslip.2015.02.004. Epub 2015 Feb 26.
Cardiolipin linoleic acid content and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase activity are associated in rat skeletal muscle.
Abstract

Cardiolipin (CL) is an inner-mitochondrial membrane phospholipid that is important for optimal mitochondrial function. Specifically, Cardiolipin and the Cardiolipin's linoleic content are known to be positively associated with cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity. However, this association has not been examined in skeletal muscle. In this study, rats were fed high-fat diets with a naturally occurring gradient in linoleic acid:  coconut oil  5.8%; flaxseed oil 13.2%; safflower oil 75.1%) in an attempt to alter both mitochondrial Cardiolipin linoleic composition and COX activity in rat mixed hind-limb muscle. In general, mitochondrial membrane lipid composition was fairly resistant to dietary treatments as only modest changes in fatty acid composition were detected in Cardiolipin and other major mitochondrial phospholipids. As a result of this resistance, Cardiolipin content was not different between the dietary groups. Consistent with the lack of changes in Cardiolipin content, mitochondrial activity was also not different between the dietary groups. However, correlational analysis using data obtained from rats across the dietary groups showed a significant relationship. suggesting that Cardiolipin content may positively influence mitochondrial activity thereby making this lipid molecule a potential factor related to mitochondrial health and function in skeletal muscle.
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The problem with DIY pressing of seed oils for its linoleic acid (LA) content is that the trend in modern agriculture is for the Ag scientists to conventionally breed seed varieties that are lower in linoleic acid, but higher in Oleic Acid which is a monosaturated Omega-9 acid commonly found in extra virgin olive oil. Suppliers want a high Oleic acid oil content, because it will not go rancid as quickly as the traditional high Linoleic acid oils of the past. Oleic Acid varieties will not work for our needs here in the Budwig Protocol! We need to freshly press those seed oils that are high in Linoleic Acid, immediately store in the refrigerator and use fairly quickly in a few weeks. Oleic Acid will not substitute for Linoleic Acid's role in mitochondrial health! So, when you try to purchase whole seed for your DIY seed oil pressing needs, try to only obtain a traditionally high linoleic oil variety for your pressing. Unfortunately, this may often be a guessing game considering the state of our Agri-business evolution of increasing shelf storage life over true health.

Traditionally, there have been a number of high linoleic acid seed types:

1)  Sunflower seed traditionally contained around 75.4% Linoleic Acid, but the business trend is to produce seeds from varieties that tend to favor Oleic oil more and more. The NuSun™ sunflower seed varieties tend to be high in Oleic Acid and is considered a mid-range Oleic oil seed. Almost all of the commercial sunflower seeds are hybrids which mostly tends to be higher in Oleic acid. Food producers tend to favor the Higher oleic acid types. The Bird Seed companies do not care and will take what they can sell for the wild bird market. I have tried to pin these companies down to the type of seed they are selling, but I continually get the run-around from their PR departments which makes me think, they have no idea what they are buying to re-sell! Considering the modern trend of sunflower seed producers to plant mid-range oleic acid types, chances are that the black oil sunflower seeds sold as bird seed are also of that type. The majority of commercial hybrids are oilseed types with the question, are they linoleic or Oleic? Commercial hybrids are sold under several trade names that include: Croplan, Mycogen, Nuseed, Pioneer, Proseed, SunOpta, Syngenta, Thunder, and Triumph. "Within the oilseed types, the majority have been bred to have mid-levels of oleic acid (called NuSun varieties), while a few are even higher in the oleic fraction and are simply referred to as high-oleic types (generally for industrial or particular food market uses)." Consumers now have a number of sunflower oils to choose from including:

•        Linoleic sunflower oil - around 30% oleic acid (monounsaturated), around 60% linoleic (omega-6 PUFA)
•        Mid-oleic sunflower oil - at least 69% oleic acid (monounsaturated), 26% linoleic (omega-6 PUFA)
•        High oleic sunflower oil - at least 82% oleic acid (monounsaturated), 9% linoleic (omega-6 PUFA)
•        High stearic sunflower oil - around 72% oleic (monounsaturated), 18% stearic (saturated). 

Mid-oleic is currently the standard sunflower oil in North America, and what you are most likely to be consuming at restaurants or in processed and packaged foods and it is probably the type found in bird seed as well.

NuSun hybrid sunflower seeds exhibit an oil composition of oleic acid ranging from 55-75% and linoleic acid from 15-35%. This compares to an oleic content of 13-40% and linoleic acid content of 40-74% in older traditional sunflower oils.

Black Oil Sunflower bird seed was my first attempt at producing a DIY oil. From 5 pounds of seed, I would get an oil yield around 800 ml of crude oil. I could purchase 40 pound sacks locally at approximately $19.00. Presuming that most Black oil bird seed is mid-oleic types, that would mean I am getting about a 26% Linoleic acid content from a pressing. Not the best, but perhaps good enough,  considering the price and availability of this common seed when compared to more expensive oil seed types?

2)  Safflower Seed traditionally contained one of the highest levels of Linoleic Acid, coming in at around 77.5%. Unfortunately, like sunflower seeds, the industry trend is to produce higher and higher levels of an Oleic Acid variety of safflower seed for the same reasons, shelf life! The majority of safflower grown in Nebraska is grown for use in birdseed. This market prefers white hulled varieties such as "Finch" (high Linoleic) and "Montola 2000" (high Oleic). Safflower varieties grown for the oil market are classified as either oleic or linoleic.  The varieties of Centennial (striped hull), Finch (white hull), Morlin (stripped hull), Nutrasaff, S-541 (stripped) are all linoleic oil types. On the other hand, Montola 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 are all high oleic oil types and should be avoided for our purposes. Finch, Montola 2003, Hybrid 9049, Cardinal and MonDak are the preferred varieties for the white birdseed market because they have a pure white seed (normal hull)--some are linoleic types and others are Oleic types. It is really impossible to know which is which when purchasing safflower birdseed. I guess the take-away from all of this is to know that even the Oleic safflower oil varieties still contain around  15% Linoleic Acid which is better than nothing.

News-Flash!    I just run across the perfect safflower variety for our use! Its called Nutrasaff. This seed variety was released as a high Linoleic acid content, high protein, thin hull whole seed supplement for livestock and the birdseed industries. Safflower normally has an oil content of 36-39%, but Nutrasaff has up to 50 percent oil content.  The Nutrasaff oil is high in linoleic acid, accounting for 75% of total PUFA content; therefore is a major source of PUFA. To summarize: Nutrasaff has an extremely thin outer hull (40% thinner than traditional safflower),  15% more oil content, 25% higher protein, 30% higher fat content and it is organic, chemical free, Non-GMO. Exactly what we are looking for in a DIY seed that we can press into a high linoleic seed oil! And even better, it seems available on the commercial market at certain birdseed companies and probably can be special ordered at many livestock feed companies. Nutrasaff is a bit higher priced than normal safflower seed. Looks like to me one can buy 50 lb sacks at around US$49.00 at feed stores compared to $24 for 50 lbs of regular safflower. Petco sells 20 lb sacks of nutrasaff birdseed for US$36 to bird lovers.

I just received my first order of Nutrasaff in a 50 pound bag (packaged by Safflower Technologies, Int., Fairview, Mt (406-742-5401) through the Des Moines Feed Company. It seems a very clean seed and my cheap Chinese seed press had little problems producing oil from it. From 3 pounds, I produced 475 ml of oil which I compare to a previous 3 pounds of regular safflower seed which produced 400ml. So, it does seem to contain more oil as advertised! Nutrasaff will be my prime high Linoleic oil in the future and should be a good seed for those with the cheaper seed presses.

3)  Canola oil (rape seed) has 22.9% LA in its oil.  One bushel (50 lbs) of canola seed makes 11 litres of canola oil. Each tiny seed contains approximately 43% oil. Make sure your variety is not GMO or Roundup ready. Dwarf Essex Rapeseed  may be a good choice for an edible oil. Oil yield is around 1/3 of seed weight of which Omega-6 Linoleic acid consists of 26%  and the Omega-3 Linolenic acid  10%.

4)  Corn seed has 58.7% LA in its oil.  Corn oil is made from the kernel's corn germ material and which is a low oil yield material. This would probably not be a very practical seed for DIY pressing, plus organic, non-gmo stock is pricey.

5)  Soybean oil has 54.5% LA  in its oil, but low yielding at around 18%. The newer soybean varieties are going for the higher Oleic oil types too. Pioneer Seed company has a variety called, Plenish, that is a high oleic oil soybean. Low-linoleic soybean varieties have been on the market for a number of years, with increasing planting trends continuing. The traditional soybean seed has per 100 grams of seed: 58 grams of PUFA in the form of Linoleic Acid (LA) at 51% and the Omega-6, ALA at 7-10%. Oleic acid levels in these old seeds come in around 23%.


6)  Hemp Seed oil has 52-62% Linoleic acid with 12-23% Linolenic acid. Hemp seed seems very pricey and due to the stigma placed by government on all hemp seeds, it is probably best to avoid this seed for oil pressing at this time. Nevertheless, it is a really interesting seed oil! It is one of the few seed oils that contain up to 3% CLA (conjugated Linoleic acid) which is considered very medicinal from all accounts. Also, if one wants to consider all of the seed oils out there, Hemp seed oil seems to have the near perfect Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio of 3:1! Dr. Budwig may have thought Flax oil had the perfect blend, but modern scientific knowledge would disagree and point toward Hemp as the perfect ratio. Plus, it was probably rather doubtful that Dr. Budwig had access to Hemp seed back in post-war Germany to really study much. Hemp harvesting has a long European history, but only for cloth production, not oil.  One of the main problems with trying to use hemp seed for oil currently here in the USA is that the government requires all hemp seed to be sterilized by either of two methods:

1. Steam heat:  The use of steam (212 ° F) for rendering seed or grain non-viable requires that the seed lot be homogenous and that all parts of the seed lot be subjected uniformly and continuously to steam heat for a minimum of 15 minutes. Due to the insulating properties of seed, care must be taken to assure that the entire lot is exposed to live steam. If subsequent testing shows that the lot is not 100% non-viable, the process must be repeated.

2.  Infra-Red Radiation:  Industrial Hemp can be rendered non-viable through an infra-red cooking process. This is accomplished by first tempering the seed to a moisture content of 13 to 14 percent. The seed is then heated using natural gas generated infra-red energy of a wavelength of 1.8 to 3.2 microns. The seed must be heated to a minimum temperature of 110° C (230°F) . The seed flow rate must be set to assure that the time of cooking includes heating time from ambient to treatment temperature, and that treatment time is sufficient to result in non-viable seed. If subsequent testing shows that the lot is not 100% non-viable, the process must be repeated.

Steam heating would likely damage the PUFAs to some extent though perhaps not that much if the temp was indeed kept at 212° for only 15 minutes according to some recent hemp oil studies.  Infra-red heating would also be rather bad with a temperature of 230 degrees F on the PUFAs, though if this heat is added for only a short time, damage could be limited. So, at this time, sterilized hemp seed is probably not a viable source for a good DIY endeavor. Interestingly, H. Mölleken found in a study: "Heated native (unrefined) hemp oils are quite stable under high-temperature conditions. Temperatures of 170-250°C do not stress this oil, so that high concentrations of trans fatty acids are scarcely formed. Presumably antioxidants, such as tocopherols, stabilize the oil, since hemp oils contain enough gamma-tocopherol to have a strong antioxidant effect." If this is true, perhaps short bursts of heat to sterilized the seed may not be that detrimental to a pressed oil, particularly if heated in the protective seed's shell?

7) Peanut Oil (groundnut) contains around 27-32% Linoleic acid. The fatty acid breakdown of peanut oil is 20% saturated fat, 50% monounsaturated fat (Oleic Acid) and 30% Linoleic Acid. It should give around a 40% oil yield (2 cups of peanuts = 3/4 cup of crude oil). Fifty pound sack prices of peanut in shell from a number of suppliers seems pricey, i.e. $100 for a 50 pound sack. Perhaps buying them raw in the shell is the best way to go for storage purposes? It appears DIY peanut oil may be the best solution to being assured a DIY oil that is high yield with an approximate 30% LA content as the industry has yet to use a largely use high Oleic acid variety--though they do exist and are being marketed.

•   Runner peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are primarily grown in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, with Georgia producing 40% of the U.S. peanut crop. Runner peanuts are most commonly used in the production of peanut butter.

•   Virginia peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are primarily grown in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. They produce the largest nuts and are most often used as snacking peanuts. Virginia peanuts have also become very popular in gourmet, all-natural peanut butters.

•   Spanish peanuts (Arachis fastigata) are primarily grown in Texas and Oklahoma. Their nuts have bright red skins. Spanish peanuts are used in candies or sold as salted, shelled peanuts for snacking and are also used in the production of peanut butter.

•   Valencia peanuts (Arachis fastigata) are mostly produced in New Mexico. They are known as the sweetest tasting peanuts and are, therefore, very popular for all natural and homemade peanut butters. Valencia peanuts also make delicious boiled peanuts.

I think any type should produce a good peanut oil, though the Spanish types are said to contain the highest volumes.

8) Cottonseed oil contains around 54% linoleic acid.  Whole cottonseed does not flow easily like grains.  It is not sold in sacks.  So you have to buy pretty large quantities, in bulk, if you want to use it.

9) Sesame Oil contains around 45% Linoleic acid. You would want the hulls on and raw. They tend to be on the pricey side.


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 If you are after a cold-pressed therapeutic seed oil that contains approximately a 3:1 ratio (LA : ALA), I would formulate using either Sunflower or Safflower oil that contains approximately 75% LA (Sunflower slightly less) and virtually no ALA at 666 milliliters. I would add to this 333 milliliters of Flax oil that contains approximately 57% ALA & 16% LA. This would give approximately 1000 mls of a seed oil that would contain 553 mls of Linolelic acid (LA) & 190 mls of Alpha-linolenic acid. This 2/3 sunflower/safflower oil and 1/3 flax oil formula will pretty much get you close to a 3:1 ratio without sweating the details. Each ml of oil will weigh approximately .93 grams that gives you in that 1000 mls of oil, 520 grams of LA and 179 grams of ALA.

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     So far, one of the best companies which I have found that will send you a high quality, clean seed, is the Des Moines Feed Company, 2010 Hubbell Ave, Des Moines, IA 50317.  And, I might stress, a clean seed is important when pressing for oil! The beauty of this company is that they clean their grain further before it is bagged and sold to the public. They routinely lab test grains to make sure all raw product meets their specs as well.

Some of you out there may knock this company because it is a Bird Seed company--not for human consumption, but let me remind you that birds are extremely sensitive to environmental toxins and this company knows it! Remember the old "canary in the coal mine" saying? Birds are so sensitive to toxins, that canaries were taken down into coal mines to warn the humans that toxins were in the air way before they could succumb! The Des Moines Feed Company offers some very hard to find seeds in bulk volumes. They carry Nutrasaff in 50 pound bags with the cost at $48.10. They also carry 50 pounds of whole brown flax seed at $37.80! I have been paying around $60 from a Honeyville in California! The beauty of all this is if you are lucky enough to live near one if their dealers, you can avoid shipping costs though it appears they will ship to you any where in the USA with reasonable rates.

      My first attempt at pressing a DIY linoleic oil was with Black Oil Sunflower bird seed that I was able to purchase cheaply at $19.00 per 40 pound sack. As I wrote above, this may be a person's best logical gamble in trying to purchase a high linoleic acid oil when considering that Agribusiness' goal seems to be producing a seed of various types with very low linoleic levels in favor of Oleic Acid content--if price is a concern.  So far, the bird seed industry seems to have no interest in whether their purchased seed for resell is high linoleic or Oleic types. They will use what ever they can buy cheaply.

My Chinese press had some difficulty pressing oil from the sunflower black oil seeds. Some times, it seemed to clog up, laboring intensely. I am not sure why? Probably the high hull content along with various debris found in the seed contributed.  Maybe my electric motor was not heavy duty enough for the bigger, thicker hulled black oil types?  The black oil sunflower seeds often came with a lot of debris in the sacks consisting of twigs and other artifacts which I tried to pick out before pouring into the press hopper. That is some what of a hassle and you will never get them all!  I think I need a heavier duty press, if I plan to press Black oil sunflower seeds much in the future.  Maybe one with at least a 1000w motor?

     My second seed attempt was a generic safflower bird seed which I purchased at the local feed store for US$24.00 for 50 pounds. It seemed to produce a much cleaner oil than the Black oil sunflower seeds. As far as cleanliness of the seed,  there was still a few thin stems mixed in with the safflower seed, but it seemed much cleaner than the Sunflower seeds. My Chinese press seemed to have an easier time at producing oil from safflower than Sunflower. From my first attempt, I pressed 400 ml of oil from a 3 lb volume of safflower seed. My second attempt using my Chinese press was with 5 pounds of safflower seed. I had some trouble this time with the seed meal clogging the end resulting in labored motor performance and reduced oil output. I suspect it was because of the small hard twigs in the seed that bogged down the screw. I carefully picked out those twigs in later fed batches and the press worked much smoother, better, faster. On my 2nd attempt at pressing 5 pounds of safflower, I collected around 750 ml of oil.  It produced a much cleaner oil than the black oil sunflower seed, but not quite as clean as flax seeds. I plan to purchase some Nutrasaff variety safflower in the near future that will guarantee me a high linoleic acid percentage in that oil plus has 40% less hull to clog up the screw. 

I just received my first order of Nutrasaff in a 50 pound bag (packaged by Safflower Technologies, Int., Fairview, Mt (406-742-5401) through the Des Moines Feed Company. It seems a very clean seed and my cheap Chinese seed press had little problems producing oil from it. From 3 pounds, I produced 475 ml of oil which I compare to a previous 3 pounds of regular safflower seed which produced 400ml. So, it does seem to contain more oil as advertised! Nutrasaff will be my prime high Linoleic oil in the future and should be a good seed for those with the cheaper seed presses.

In the end, I have come to the conclusion that I need a heavier duty seed press if I plan to press larger amounts of oil for friends and family. These cheap Chinese models have fixed motor speeds, fixed distance from the screw to the end crush plate, and fixed tip size through which the meal is expelled. All of these factors really need to be adjustable for each type of seed and seed moisture content. Each of these adjustments will have an effect on each other and the final oil product. Proper record keeping is necessary. A Chinese press limits these adjustments to only one variable which I deem inadequate. The adjustments needed to be found in the ideal seed press:

1)  Distance between screw end and Crush Plate. . . . . . . . As the space is made smaller between the screw end and crush plate, the press's force increases creating greater pressures. Too large of a distance and the meal will pass through the end with less oil extracted.  The key is to have just the right amount of space adjusted to allow the meal to pass through the end nozzle while extracting the maximum content of the seed oil. Many presses will have this adjustment made by turning its head's threads in or out. As small as a 1/16 of a turn can make a large difference!  Measuring thread distances should be recorded for future use and as an indication of crush plate placement.

2)  Motor Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Your more expensive, sophisticated presses will have a variable speed drive. A faster turning screw will force the seed through the screw faster allowing less time at the crush plate, but one has to balance the speed in combination with nozzle size to determine oil output. It is commonly known that a higher speed can cause a decrease in oil production. To a point, the slower the seed press motor turns, the more oil production is achieved. Many will say that the higher screw speeds will also rise temperatures, but I find that dubious. My view, depending on the nozzle tip diameter used in combination is that it can actually lower temperatures at the crush plate as the seed is forced through the nozzle faster with less friction. Thus, the less time at the crush plate will generate less heat with the oil production dropping! A 2011 journal article had this to say: "The effect of difference speeds to the percentage of oil yield is related with the duration of pressing process. Slow speed would probably extend the pressing process and result to the increase of heating process in the machine (Evangelista, 2009). This condition might result to the oil yield to flow easily and also increased (Lutanda ltd, 1988)."

3)  Nozzle Tip Diameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . many presses have multiple tips with varying diameters that can be wrenched on the end to affect the back-pressures of the flowing seed meal. Tips can vary from 5mm to 15mm depending on seed type and moisture content. Larger tip sizes will allow the seed meal to pass through faster with less pressure. This will often hurt oil extraction volumes negatively. Too small of a tip diameter will stop the flow of seed meal all together. It is all a delicate dance. Some suggestions for tip diameter settings: rape seed- 5,6,7mm,  flax seed-  7mm,  Sunflower seeds with hull-  10mm, and Sunflower seeds hulless- 5 or 7mm. The same before mentioned 2011 journal article had this to say: "The size of the nozzle also related with the pressing process. Smaller size of nozzle might add pressure to the seed which thus promote heat to be produced by the result of the collision between the shaft screw and the seeds and also between the seeds themselves."


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     My cheap $300 Chinese press worked very well for me for years when I only did whole flax seed where I only had to supply my own personal needs, but when I started extolling the virtues of the Budwig oil/protein supplement to family and friends, it suddenly created a need for larger and faster amounts of oil. Plus, with my discovery of how important a high linoleic seed oil was and which needed to be incorporated into the Budwig formula, I needed to up-grade!

     I looked over what the Chinese had to offer which wasn't much in their less expensive models. They were all built pretty closely to the same design type with a stainless steel box housing for the electric motor and a small steel screw and barrel bolted on. They all had fixed motor speeds and fixed nozzle diameters. About the only thing I would be gaining by up-grading to one of these is a more powerful motor in the 1500w range. I did find one Chinese model pictured below that seemed to also have an addition of an adjustment wheel on one end that presumably allowed the operator to adjust space between crush plate and screw-end. That would be nice. Prices for this larger unit seemed to range between US$1200 to over $2000, plus add onto this shipping costs once it arrived at a USA port to my destination along with tariffs, and we were probably talking about a final cost close to $3000 or more! My only seeming alternative was the USA or European presses that started at around $6000 and up.
 Dr. Johanna Budwig wrote a number of books in German with only a few being translated and published in English. Her 1977 work, above, Der Tod des Tumors (Death of the Tumors) has not been published in English. After corresponding with a Professor friend, Dr. Ilona Klein of BYU, I was stimulated into attempting a machine translation of that text. I have found translation software to be much better in recent years than in the past and I was pleasantly surprised that my attempts seemed rewarding and to some extent surprising when compared to her English translations that are popularly out there now.

Der Tod des Tumors is written in two volumes. The first volume is rather dry and seemed to concentrate on the patenting process of her methods and financial concerns. The second part of this text is entitled Volume II, THE DOCUMENTATION and is much more interesting. It begins with a number of letters from her patients, some with very dire prognoses that are quite impressive of how her oil/protein diet effected cures for them. She does not list any failures and surely there were. Nevertheless, reading through them has to support her success rates as impressive to say the least.

I was primarily interested if this book would explain her choice of picking Flax oil as the best oil for treatment as all of her English translations seem to proclaim. I found that she was quite aware that other seed oils were beneficial.  In Volume 1, page 86, she describes her patent invention as such: "The inventions contained in this notice of recognition include dipolar systems: On the one hand, highly unsaturated fats rich in electrons and fatty acids, as electron donors, as sources of the negatively charged Electrons made up of the quanta of solar energy, associated with the magnetic fields of the photons of the sun. These include e.g: Linseed oil, sunflower oil, poppy seed oil, soya oil, maize oil, maize germ oil, Wheat germ oil, rice oil, safflower oil, avocado oil and others. . ."

Thus, we see that she appreciates the value of a number of seed oils as possible treatment options from her patent description, even if she seemed to choose Flax oil (linseed oil) as her favorite oil of prescription.  In Volume 2, a very interesting letter to Dr. Budwig from one of her patients, a Mrs. H.W. opens up a whole new vista in her prescribing of oils! Volume 2, page 114-115:

Mrs. H.W. writes:  "In the summer of 1957, I had on my right breast, a small knot with leakage of liquid.  In the autumn of 1957, I went to see a doctor who treated me with injections. However, there was no improvement.  On the contrary, the knot became bigger and bigger and in consequence, an open wound. In the summer of 1958, the knot was already so large, I had increasing pain. I also lost weight and experienced languor. The liquid flowing out of the wart resulted in a strong crust formation. Because of this serious condition, I went looking for a doctor, who wanted to immediately admit me to the Cantonal hospital for surgery. Neither my husband, nor I could decide."     Now the patient describes in detail what she did next. She also visited biological clinics.  "But there was no cure, it continued to flow. In June 1959, I became a patient with Dr. Budwig and discussed with her about my case. She advised me to immediately switch to the oil-protein diet in especially linseed (flax) oil, sunflower oil, both cold-pressed in quark. In a month of this cure diet and oil/protein supplement, the flowing from the wart stopped. After about six more months,  thanks to  Dr. Budwig's therapy, I gained about 10 pounds of weight, too. The wound healed and the crust dissolved.  Now there is beautiful skin. I would like to mention that I strictly adhered to Dr. Budwig's dietary rules imposed on me, linseed (flax) oil, Diäsan, "Switzerland's" cold-pressed sunflower oil;  I feel very well again, I am fully able to work, the knot at the Chest has receded to a small flat hardening."

There you have it! Dr. Budwig at least with some of her patients prescribed a combination of cold-pressed sunflower oil along with the Flax oil!





You know, I think I might have figured out why Dr. Budwig purportedly said this: "The combination of double unsaturated linoleic acid (LA) with triple unsaturated linolenic acid (ALA) is particularly well-combined in flaxseed." back in the infancy of the Fatty Acid sciences.   Thus, flax oil became her apparent seed oil of choice! Lets look at the seed oils that she had listed in her patent:

Linseed (Flax) oil...........................      Omega-6 Linoleic acid 16%      vs     Omega-3 Linolenic acid 57%

sunflower oil....................................      Omega-6 Linoleic acid 68%      vs    Omega-3 Linolenic acid  <1%

poppy seed oil...............................       Omega-6 Linoleic acid 70%      vs    Omega-3 Linolenic acid  0%

soya (soybean) oil........................        Omega-6 Linoleic acid 51%      vs     Omega-3 Linolenic acid  7%

maize (corn) oil..............................       Omega-6 Linoleic acid 59%      vs     Omega-3 Linolenic acid  1%

Wheat germ oil................................     Omega-6 Linoleic acid 55%       vs     Omega-3 Linolenic acid  7%

rice oil.............................................       Omega-6 Linoleic acid 39%       vs     Omega-3 Linolenic acid  <2%

safflower oil.....................................      Omega-6 Linoleic acid 78%       vs      Omega-3 Linolenic acid  <1%

avocado oil.....................................       Omega-6 Linoleic acid 2-17%   vs     Omega-3 Linolenic acid  1%


You will see from the above values that Flax (linseed) oil really is the only oil that has a some what balanced amount of both Omega-6 Linoleic acid and Omega-3 Linolenic acid! All of the others tip way toward the Omega-6 Linoleic acid levels by huge margins with very little of the Omega-3 Linolenic acid present! 

So, if one was to place one's self in the 1950's lab coat of Dr. Budwig and only choose one oil, then Flax oil would seem the logical balanced seed oil that contains the most Linoleic plus Linolenic acid levels of all of the others! It is a natural choice for her in a time when the ratio of both the Omega-6 and Omega-3s were not well appreciated. She knew that both were synergistic for certain, but that was about it in the knowledge banks at that time. It was not known until rather recently that linoleic acid is the prime component of cardiolipin that is found in the inner membrane of the powerhouses of our cells, the mitochondria. Linoleic fatty acid is also the major PUFA found in all of our body tissues. Had she appreciated the importance of Linoleic acid over Linolenic acid, she would probably have added on a regular basis, a high linoleic acid seed oil to her beloved flax oil to increase the Omega-6 levels in her oil/protein + quark supplement.





Then before I was about to pull the trigger on buying one of these larger Chinese presses, I happened onto this Turkish seed press, the NF-80. It followed the design common of the USA and European presses and the company produced a small model for the home or small business as well and prices seemed very reasonable!
    I contacted SARAS LLC (Cold Press Oil Tech.com) which is the USA distributor for the Turkish firm, Karaerler that manufactures these seed oil presses and paid for a NF-80 model. My inquiry to the company produced a quick response and we soon made a deal for me to purchase one of their NF-80 seed presses.  Amazingly, that press arrived at O'Hare in Chicago from Turkey within 5 days of payment though I understand they do have models in stock here in the USA.  They wanted me to have the latest model.

    First off, this press operates here in the USA on a 220 electrical system and was shipped to me with a European style electrical plug-end. You can do one of two things, you can cut off that European end and simply wire on a 220 USA style plug-end which is what I did or buy a voltage converter that will allow you to run this press off of the common 110 volt outlet. Just make sure you get a large enough rated one like this 5000 watt ELC T-5000 that currently can be had on Amazon for around $135. This transformer has an already built on universal adapter that will allow use of the European plug-in with American household systems. I decided to simply add a wire to my washing machine/dryer 220 outlet with an American style plug and receptacle. You can do either.

    One also has the heater thermostat control panel to the right of the ABB control panel. At first, I thought that this heater attachment was not necessary for a cold-pressed oil. Certainly, I did not use one on my cheap Chinese press as I found that the mere mechanical friction was enough to produce all of the mild heat I needed for a cold-pressed seed oil. I soon found out that I was wrong and needed some extra heat on this type of press to start the pressing process initially out--particularly if I was going at slower screw speeds and smaller nozzle tip diameters! I was having pressing problems when I avoided using the heating sleeve in the beginning! Some heat is needed to efficiently press seed in this unit and more importantly, I found out it really did not seem to heat the oil above the all important 120 degrees F, even when the 8-hole sleeve was heated to as high as 80 degrees C (176° F).   The oil would come out of the colander sleeve less than 120° F!

If one does not pre-heat the sleeve as instructed by the company, one can easily have clogging problems at the crush plate & nozzle ends. Some heat up there is a must in the very beginning and remember, heat is only applied for seconds up there to the moving crushed seed which I am sure is why the oil comes out so cool, below 120°F. I put a lab thermometer probe on the outflowing oil and consistently read temps between 115 and 120° with my heating unit around 80 degrees C.  As one study online writes of this type of seed press: "Special cavities near the nozzle prevent the cake/seed-mix from sticking to the screw. Otherwise, there would be no forward movement. The press-cake is pressed through changeable nozzles and formed to pellets. In most types of presses the nozzle is heated to avoid blocking of the press-cake. In order to avoid blockage of the press cake outlet for some types of screw presses, it is necessary to heat this part of the press. This heating should be in the range between 60 & 80 °C."

I was still not happy with even that much heat being applied to my oil considering how fragile the Omegas are, so I did more experimenting. I finally hit upon the settings that gave me output oil  at around 110 ° F or less. I found running my NF-80 at 21 hz and using a larger 13mm nozzle tip size seemed to give me the coolest temperatures. I would start my seed run at around 80°C  (176° F) for the first 5 minutes until oil & pellet by-product was being ejected smoothly and then quickly cut off my heat element to 0 degrees. Having done that, I found that the crush plate temp would quickly drop to 53-56° C (127-132° F) without any clogging problems occurring. Completely turning the external heat off allowed the simple natural friction from pressing the seed to maintain a temp in the lower 50s°C on its own simply from the internal friction mechanics with no clogging. A temperature probe placed in the ejected oil would give me a consistent readings of around 104 -110°F--well below the 120°F limit of cold pressed oils!

    There is a learning curve to operating one of these more sophisticated machines, particularly if you have spent years working with one of those cheap Chinese presses that take the minimum of clean up. My first week using the NF-80 was a bit trying, particularly in regard to clean-up disassembly of the NF-80! As far as the actual pressing of seed oil,  I was very happy with how it pressed my black oil sunflower seed with hulls when compared to my Chinese model. It had little trouble and I did 5 pounds in under an hour with this being compared to the same process taking over 2 hours with multple clogging, shut-downs and  restarts using that cheap Chinese press only a few weeks earlier. I did 5 pounds and produced 1000 ml of sunflower oil originally running at 18 Hz speed and using a 11mm nozzle size. Black oil type sunflower oil still came out rather "dirty", but I think that is simply the nature of the beast and why it is called "black oil".  I run this raw oil through a centrifuge for 20 minutes which results in a nice clear oil though I don't think that is necessary.

As I written previously, my biggest learning curve was on how to disassemble and clean this machine after a pressing. The company packs a large hammer and spanner wrench with the press and trust me, they are needed to disassemble after a cleaning! The act of mechanical pressing along with generated heat tightens up the connections!  Before pressing, simply hand tightening the various parts on as needed, but after a pressing, one should follow a routine to best clean up for the next pressing. My major mistake was that I forgot to memorize which directions the various parts screwed on and off. One has to remember that the colander section with all of the holes has reverse threads and must be loosened by rotating upwards! The next section which is often called the 8-hole sleeve is loosened by rotating downwards with the same being true for the crush plate section and the nozzle attachment attached further to the right:

Colander section............................................rotates up to loosen
8-hole sleeve...................................................rotates down to loosen
Crush plate......................................................rotates down to loosen
Nozzle..............................................................rotates down to loosen

The key to disassembly is to take it apart from right to left, one section at a time! When pressing is finished, remove the nozzle tip first and allow the remaining seed debris to run through the 8-hole sleeve without the nozzle on. Once the seed material is removed, then using a spanner wrench, hit wench with hammer downwards to loosen and unscrew. Take a punch type tool and knock the compressed seed material out of its inner hole and use a screw driver to knock seed out of other inner parts until clean. The same punch can be used to knock the seed material from the nozzle tip, too. After the 8-hole sleeve is removed, take spanner wrench and remove the colander sleeve by using a hammer on the wrench and pounding upward! Using this order of removal should make ease of disassembly routine. Do not forget or become confused in which directions these sleeves must be hammered to loosen! It is not good to be hammering the wrench in the wrong direction making it even tighter!

To summarize, it is always wise that you make sure to keep the auger screw running toward the end of your pressing session until all seed material ceases from ejecting through the nozzle. Your first step in disassembly is to remove the outer nozzle tip attachment on the far right with the furnished regular wrench by rotating downward. This is an easy function and one should have little trouble removing it from the crush plate section. Once removed, turn motor back on and make sure no further seed material comes out to denote a finished session. This will still result in a plug of seed material in the space between the crush plate and the auger screw head which must be removed by force using a punch, once that sleeve is off. Next step is to remove the 8-hole sleeve + nozzle head as one piece that also contains the crush plate, all in one unit. It is not necessary to take these two sections apart once you have established a useable spacing. Remove as one whole unit. Take the spanner wrench and tap on it with the furnished hammer in a downward motion. It should come loose relative easily. Continue rotating it until removed from the colander section which is left in place. You will need a heavy towel to protect your hands from the heat toward the end of this removal process. Once removed and with the crush plate still inserted in this sleeve, place the entire section on its end with crush plate up and use a flat punch to knock the encased seed material out of the end space, hopefully it will fall out in one plug. If fragments remain, use a plain screw driver to scrape/tap out what was left behind. The online company instructional videos will show this being done with a simple screw driver, but I find a flat punch as pictured to the left to be much more efficient in knocking the seed capsule out in one piece from the hole.  A screw driver will often be driven down into the seed material, embedding, and forcing the seed material out in pieces, not so much one easy chunk, if a flat punch is being used. I think it is important to do this procedure while the sleeve, crush plate and seed material are all still warm from the initial pressing. If you let it cool off, it seems to be more difficult to remove taking on a more cement-like texture.

I like compressed air to finish the cleaning job. I have a small air compressor with an attached air gun accessory which works nicely in blowing out excess seed cake fragments and even blowing out excess oil trapped in the colander sleeve section. Of course, this is not necessary with brushing and rags being able to accomplish similar results.

Cooling System

The key to a successful cold oil pressing is to limit the amount of heat that the newly pressed seed oil is subjected to which I detailed previously with the suggested ideal settings. I also have devised an ice cold collection system to immediately cool the pressed oil as it drops-by-drop and maintain that cool temp until pressing is completed. To do this, I re-purposed an ice cream maker's ice bucket into an external collection bucket for the one liter wine carafe that will collect the oil. I take the ice bucket and wrap it in insulating bubble wrap and then cover with protective gray duck tape. I also make a round top for it with hole in the center for the carafe out of thick foam which I cover with duct tape too. You will have to freeze the ice bucket in the freezer just as you would, if you were using it to make ice cream. Take it out, place carafe inside, fill with water and cover with insulated top. Place under the seed press to collect oil as it drops. It really works nicely and quickly cools the newly pressed oil to refrigeration temps!