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Improving the nutritional properties of rapessed
Author(s) -
Slinger S. J.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02912381
Subject(s) - erucic acid , rapeseed , brassica , cultivar , meal , biology , food science , microbiology and biotechnology , agronomy , toxicology
Canadian plant breeders have recently succeeded in producing rapeseed with <1% erucic acid in the oil and with a very low level of glucosinolates in the meal. One such Brassica napus cultivar, ‘Tower,’ is now licensed. The meal from ‘Tower’ seed has been subjected to extensive chemical and biological testing and has proven to be a markedly superior product as compared with conventional rapeseed meals. This new cultivar is less goitrogenic and more palatable and gives satisfactory productive performance in animals at use levels well in excess of older varieties. The presence of high levels of erucic acid in older varieties made the oils undesirable, particularly because this compound is not well metabolized by cardiac and certain other tissues and results in pathological changes in a number of experimental animals. ‘Tower’ rapeseed oil is less cardiotoxic than high erucic oils and appears to be no more detrimental when used at the 20% level in animal diets than a number of other oils used in human foods.