Improving high‐erucic oilseeds: Chemically or genetically?

Because of evidence that erucic acid may be undesirable in edible products, genetically developed low‐erucic varieties of Brassica campestris and Brassica napus are expected to become a major part of the Canadian and European rapeseed crops within the next few years. In contrast the objective of work on crambe and related oilseeds in the U.S. is a reliable domestic source of oil high in erucic acid for industrial purposes. Whether the oil is produced for edible or nonfood uses, however, the glucosinolates that are characteristically present in oilseeds of the mustard family unfavorably influence the use of the byproduct meals as feed. These glucosinolates are the subject of current intensive research, both chemical and genetic. Development of convenient, accurate and sensitive analytical methods has markedly facilitated this research. To achieve optimum meal quality, procedures involving aqueous extraction of unreacted glucosinolates are under study. Genetically, a Polish variety of B. napus called Bronowski has been found to produce seed having very low glucosinolate content, and individual low‐glucosinolate plants of B. campestris have been discovered. Crambe exhibits significantly less observable variability than rapeseed. Consequently the approaches based on chemical research seem more promising, but the possibility of developing a low‐glucosinolate, high‐erucic Brassica adapted to agricultural production in the U.S. to complement or even compete with crambe is not being overlooked.