Flaxseed is emerging as an important functional food ingredient because of its rich contents of α-linolenic acid (ALA, omega-3 fatty acid), lignans, and fiber. Flaxseed oil, fibers and flax lignans have potential health benefits such as in reduction of cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, autoimmune and neurological disorders. Flax protein helps in...

Developing novel strategies for improving the fatty acid composition of ruminant products relies upon increasing our understanding of rumen bacterial lipid metabolism. This study investigated whether flax or echium oil supplementation of steer diets could alter the rumen fatty acids and change the microbiome. Six Hereford × Friesian steers were offered grass silage/sugar beet pulp only (GS), or...

Research on lignin biodegradation has become of great interest, due to the fact that lignin is one of the most abundant renewable materials, next to cellulose. Lignin is also the substance that gives color to raw flax fibers. In order to bleach the flax and to keep its tenacity high enough for textile applications, it is necessary to remove the lignin and partially to preserve the pectin. Ligni...

Five levels of disease expression were scored in a cross-inoculation study of 120 host and 60 pathogen lines of wild flax Linum marginale and its rust fungus Melampsora lini sampled from six natural populations. Patterns of partial resistance showed clear evidence of gene-for-gene interactions, with particular levels of partial resistance occurring in specific host-pathogen combinations. Sympat...

The structural characteristics, dimensional change after four washing cycles, non-creasing properties and air permeability of Swiss double piqué knitted fabrics from cotton/flax (70% cotton, 30% flax), PAN/flax PAN, flax) 100% flax yarns have been investigated. These fabric samples varying densities were produced on a 10 -gauge circular knitting machine. results investigation showed that the in...

All of the post-embryonic, above-ground structures of seed plants are generated from the shoot apical meristem (SAM), which acts as a reservoir of stem cells. Members of the flax genus (Linum spp.) have been used historically as models for the study of SAMs (Esau, 1942). Cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum) is grown in more than 50 countries for its seeds or its stem phloem (bast) fibers (Rubi...

The Warka Vase is an iconic artifact of Mesopotamia. In the absence of rigorous botanical study, the plants depicted on the lowest register are usually thought to be flax and grain. This analysis of the image identified as grain argues that its botanical characteristics, iconographical context and similarity to an archaic sign found in proto-writing demonstrates that it should be identified as ...

Manual flax processing originated in Egypt in 2 000 BC. In the present study a representative sample of the workers involved in this trade, where flax is processed in small workshops or homes, was examined, and their dust exposure was evaluated. The study showed that workers handling and processing flax are exposed to high concentrations of dust; the levels of dust at hackling and combing are c...