Perspectives of Breeding for Altering Sunflower Oil Quality to Obtain Novel Oils

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), belonging to the family „Asteraceae‟ is a diploid species (2n = 2x = 34). Sunflower is an important oilseed crop and is the preferred source of oil for domestic consumption and cooking worldwide (Hu et al., 2010). In the oilseed scenario, sunflower competes with other three major oilseeds, i.e. soyabean, groundnut and rapeseed mustard at global level. Sunflower has a great potential in bridging the gap between the demand and supply of edible oil in future. Sunflower holds great promise because of its short duration, photoinsensitivity, drought tolerance and higher amount of superior quality oil (Anastasi et al., 2010). In addition, due to its large capacity of adaptation to different edaphic and climatic conditions, sunflower is an excellent option for crop rotation. Domesticated sunflower produces a wide range of products, including International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 949-962 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com