Oil Content and Fatty Acid Variation in some Indian Accessions of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.) Seed and Oil.

Oil Content and fatty acid profile of seeds of some Indian safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.) lines were studied. The oil content as evaluated by NMR, varied from 24.7% to 37.6% The line SM NDS-1 was shown to have highest percentage of oil on whole seed basis. Gas Liquid Chromatographic (GLC) examination of methyl esters indicated the presence of Linoleic acid, oleic acid, Stearic acid and palmitic acid. as the major fatty acids in all the varieties along with traces of myristic acid in few selected lines.

The present study was undertaken to identify parental lines which can be exploited for developing varieties with modified fatty cid composition suited to the Indian conditions.