THE VARIATION IN FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF THE SEED OF LINUM SPECIES

The occurrence of ricinoleic acid inLinum seed oils

“…L. leonii was the single exception to this pattern, having a high concentration of linoleic acid (44%) with equal amounts of oleic and linolenic acids (24%). The results for these fatty acids generally agree with those of previous studies (3,4).…”

“…Ricinoleic acid was present as a minor component of all 5 species tested in the section Syllinum, ranging from 3% to 8% of total fatty acids, whereas no species from the remainder of the genus contained any detectable level. Although one of the L. mucronatum accessions analyzed (CPI 82684) had been reported to contain ricinoleic acid (2), previous analyzes of other species from this section had failed to detect this fatty acid (3,4). This could be caused by the fact that under the chromatographic conditions normally used to analyze fatty acid methyl esters of seed oils, ricinoleic acid has a retention time ca.…”

“…The presence of ricinoleic acid in the genus Linurn was identified by Kleiman and Spencer (2), who reported that seeds of Linum rnucronatum collected in Turkey contained 15% ricinoleic acid. Previous extensive surveys of fatty acid composition in this genus (3,4), although including samples of L. rnucronatum and several closely related species, had not identified ricinoleic acid as a component of the seed oil. The occurrence of only 1 accession from a single species possessing the biosynthetic pathway necessary for the production of ricinoleic acid would seem unlikely.…”

Triacylglycerols of the seed oil ofLinum grandiflorumDesf.: Their composition, cytotoxicity, and hepatoprotective activity

“…Rogers () analyzed about 60 taxa of the genus Linum for the fatty acid (FA) content of their seeds, and the results revealed higher content of linolenic acid (Ln) and lower percentages of linoleic acid (L). Furthermore, Plessers () reported the variation of the FA composition of the seeds of about 44 species of Linum using GC, and explained that the differences in their composition were particularly in the linolenic and linoleic acid fractions, and concluded that, these differences were associated with the chromosome number and flower color. The GC analysis of the seed oil of L. grandiflorum revealed the presence of high content of linolenic acid with (54.66%) and varied quantitatively in C 11 and C 12 fatty acids (Plessers, ).…”

Interspecific hybridization in Linum

“…Several of the wild species of Linum possess many agronomically valuable genes such as resistance to diseases and to drought, winterhardiness, etc. besides an unexplored reservoir of genes for oil quality (PLESSERS, 1966;YERMANOS et al, 1966) which may be of great value if transferred to the cultivated species. Studies on successful interspecific hybridization in this genus are sporadic and even a few attempts by earlier workers have not been studied systematically.…”