Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jun;17(3):230-40.
doi: 10.2174/1389202917666160202220107.

Vegetable Oil: Nutritional and Industrial Perspective

Aruna Kumar  1 , Aarti Sharma  1 , Kailash C Upadhyaya  2
Affiliations

Vegetable Oil: Nutritional and Industrial Perspective

Aruna Kumar et al. Curr Genomics. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Oils of plant origin have been predominantly used for food-based applications. Plant oils not only represent a non-polluting renewable resource but also provide a wide diversity in fatty acids (FAs) composition with diverse applications. Besides being edible, they are now increasingly being used in industrial applications such as paints, lubricants, soaps, biofuels etc. In addition, plants can be engineered to produce fatty acids which are nutritionally beneficial to human health. Thus these oils have potential to 1) substitute ever increasing demand of non -renewable petroleum sources for industrial application and 2) also spare the marine life by providing an alternative source to nutritionally and medically important long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids or 'Fish oil'. The biochemical pathways producing storage oils in plants have been extensively characterized, but the factors regulating fatty acid synthesis and controlling total oil content in oilseed crops are still poorly understood. Thus understanding of plant lipid metabolism is fundamental to its manipulation and increased production. This review on oils discusses fatty acids of nutritional and industrial importance, and approaches for achieving future designer vegetable oil for both edible and non-edible uses. The review will discuss the success and bottlenecks in efficient production of novel FAs in non-native plants using genetic engineering as a tool.

Keywords: Erucic acid.; Hydroxy fatty acids; Oleic acids; Omega-3 fatty acids; Stearidonic acid; γ-linolenic acid.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. (1)
Fig. (1)
Biosynthesis of commonly found fatty acids in plants. ACP: Acyl carrier protein, SAD: Stearoyl ACP desaturase, CoA: Coenzyme A, PC: Phosphatidylcholine, FAH12: Fatty acid hydroxylase 12, FAD2: Fatty acid desaturase 2, FAD3: Fatty acid desaturase 3, G3P: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate, LPA : Lysophosphatidic acid, PA: Phosphatidic acid, PC : Phosphatidylcholine, DAG: Diacylglycerol, TAG: Triacylglycerol, PDAT: Phospholipid: diacylglycerol acyltransferase, DGAT: acyl-CoA: Diacylglycerol acyltransferase, GPAT: acyl-CoA: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate acyltransferase, LPAT: Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase, LPCAT : Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase, PAP: Phosphatidic acid phosphatase, ACS: Acyl-CoA synthetase.
Fig. (2)
Fig. (2)
Conversion of the linoleic acid to arachidonic acid (ARA) and α-linolenic acid to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) / Docosohexaenoic acid (DHA).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bates P.D., Stymne S., Ohlrogge J. Biochemical pathways in seed oil synthesis. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 2013;16(3):358–364. - PubMed
    1. Thelen J.J., Ohlrogge J.B. Metabolic engineering of fatty acid biosynthesis in plants. Metab. Eng. 2002;4(1):12–21. - PubMed
    1. Graham I.A., Larson T., Napier J.A. Rational metabolic engineering of transgenic plants for biosynthesis of omega-3 polyunsaturates. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2007;18(2):142–147. - PubMed
    1. Rogalski M., Carrer H. Engineering plastid fatty acid biosynthesis to improve food quality and biofuel production in higher plants. Plant Biotechnol. J. 2011;9(5):554–564. - PubMed
    1. Harwood J.L., Guschina I.A. The versatility of algae and their lipid metabolism. Biochimie. 2009;91(6):679–684. - PubMed