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Transgenic Manipulation of Edible Oilseeds

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Functionality of Food Phytochemicals

Part of the book series: Recent Advances in Phytochemistry ((RAPT,volume 31))

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Abstract

Plants deposit fatty acids in triglycerides for high-density carbon and energy storage. The triglycerides accumulate predominantly in seeds, where the oil can make up a large component of the total weight of the tissue, from several to about 65 percent.1 Vegetable oils are of major economic importance, representing the source for practically all plant-derived fats in our diet. The fatty acid triglyceride composition of a given oil determines its physical, chemical, and nutritional value. For example, acyl chain length and desaturation determine melting characteristics and other functional properties, such as nutritional val ues, (see Refs.2,3 for reviews). To date, the fatty acid composition of commercial oil seeds falls into only a handful of categories (Fig. 1). Temperate crops produce highly unsaturated C18 oils with different degrees of unsaturation (70–94%). Palmitate (16:0) (in this fatty acid nomenclature, the first number indicates the length of the fatty acyl chain, the second, the number of double bonds) represents most of the saturated fatty acid component in these oils. All are liquid at room temperature and have to be hydrogenated in order to be useful for solid fat applications. Hydrogenation is currently becoming a non-desired oil modification.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Calgene Inc., 1920 Fifth Street, Davis, California, 95616, USA

    Toni Voelker

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  1. Toni Voelker
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. McGill University, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada

    Timothy Johns

  2. University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

    John T. Romeo

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Voelker, T. (1997). Transgenic Manipulation of Edible Oilseeds. In: Johns, T., Romeo, J.T. (eds) Functionality of Food Phytochemicals. Recent Advances in Phytochemistry, vol 31. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5919-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5919-1_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7714-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5919-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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