He was born in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, Venevsky district, Tula region. In 1805 he was separated from his family for a fault and moved to the locality of Alekseevka, Biryuchenskaya district, Voronezh province.
Bokarev is credited with the invention of the sunflower as an oilseed crop. In 1829 he invented a method of extracting oil from sunflower seeds. Later, in 1833, with Bokarev's assistance, Papushin built the first oil mill in Russia in Alekseevka. A year later Bokarev opened a personal creamery in the village of Alekseevka. In 1835 he started exporting vegetable oil abroad.
By 1860 in Alekseevka there were about 160 butter factories. Up to 40 thousand barrels were exported for sale, the contents of which weighed within 900 thousand pounds (more than 14 thousand tons). The Christian faith recognized sunflower oil as a vegetable oil, and perpetuated its name as a vegetable oil. In 2005, the citizens of Alekseev for Daniel Bokarev's contribution to the city and the world established a monument to the founder and named one of the city streets after him.
Subsequently, Daniil Semenovich Bokarev's grandson presented the invention at the Voronezh Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in 1894.
Date of birth and death, as well as the place of Daniel Semenovich burial, no one knows. Only at the end of the last century, information about him was derived from the memoirs of his grandson Yakov Ivanovich.
The 1st three generations of the Bokarevs continued the work begun by their inventive ancestor. The grandson built the 1st sunflower oil plant in Alekseevka. The great-grandson emphasized funds for the construction of a high-class (merchant's) club, where the district residents had the opportunity to watch the concerts of guests and their performers, to read literature in the library or to play billiards.
During Soviet times, Daniel's great-great-grandson Alexei Mikhailovich Bokarev found himself far from his homeland and had to hide his origins for a long time. And only his son, Mikhail Alexeevich Bokarev proudly bears the name of the famous ancestor-inventor. He often visits Alekseevka, is interested in its life and everything connected with the invention and promotion of oil.
In 1979 there were put 2 plaques in the district center in the memory of Daniil Bokarev. And one of the attractions of Alekseevka is considered to be the monument to the discoverer of sunflower oil.
Bokarev's case was worthily continued by the Alekseevskaya company EFKO. Originally, Riga industrialist K. F. Haberkorn founded a plant for processing anise and coriander in 1897. Later the factory began to produce sunflower oil.
Now EFKO company manages several enterprises of the oil and fats industry, the largest Russian producer of special products and margarine, also produces mayonnaise, vegetable oils, ketchups, milk and dairy products, is one of the three largest companies of the Russian agro-industrial complex.
