ABSTRACT
Although safflower is an ancient crop, its use as an oil crop is quite recent except in India. Most countries that produced safflower used it as a source of dye and food coloring, or as a medicinal. Even in India, very little research was done on safflower as a food oil until production of the crop began to increase in the 1960s. Prior to that time, Indian safflower oil was extracted by very primitive methods and consumed locally; even today most safllower oil is produced for local use.
