New crop developments for industrial oils

Traditional industrial fats and oils are derived from inedible tallow or lard, fish and whale oil, and a small group of plant oils, including linseed, soybean, castor, tung, tall, and rapeseed oil. A group of new crops and prospective new crops is available to be utilized advantageously for the production of renewable industrial resources. Some of these plants have been studied extensively from germplasm variation through crop production and processing to evaluation of the final oil and meal products. Others are not developed that far yet. Case histories onCramble, Limnanthes, Lunaria (long chain acids),Lesquerella (hydroxy acids),Stokesia andVernonia (epoxy acids),Calendula (conjugated unsaturation),Cuphea (short chain acids), jojoba (liquid wax esters), andFoeniculum (petroselenic acid) indicate that many obstacles must be overcome to arrive at success.