ABSTRACT
A number of plants accumulate relatively large quantities of oil in their seeds or fruits. Plant oils are economically important in both food and industrial applications. For example, in Canada, 8.6 million metric ton of canola (consisting of cultivars of Brassica napus and B. rapa) were produced in 1999, which amounted to over 2 billion Canadian dollars at the farmgate. If canola seed oil were increased by 1%, it is estimated that this could result in an additional $25 million per year at Canada’s farmgate [personal communication, D.Adolph, Canola Council of Canada, November 1999].
