Herbaceous Edible Oilseed-Bearing Plants: Origin, Botanical Insights, Constraints, and Recent Progress

Carbohydrates, lipids (mostly fats and oils), proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water are the six main classes of nutrients found in foods. After carbohydrates, oils are important source of major calories required in the human diet. Oils act as a vehicle for some of the important vitamins and possess a range of nutrients and bio-active compounds. These edible oil-yielding plants can be categorized into non-woody (herbaceous) and woody (non-herbaceous) oil-bearing plants. This chapter mainly focuses on important herbaceous edible oilseed (crop)plants such as pea(ground)nut (Arachis hypogaea L.), Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern. and Coss.), rapeseed (Brassica campestris L.) (syn. B. rapa), soybean (Glycine max L.), flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum L.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), and niger (Guizotia abyssinica L.). It aims to (a) overview the key insights into the origin, botany and benefits of the mentioned herbaceous edible oilseed (crop)plants; (b) highlight the major constraints for their growth and productivity (quantitative-qualitative); (c) enlighten important mitigation-approaches for minimizing the constraints-accrued impacts; (d) briefly overview the major aims and achievements of important breeding programmes focused on these oilseed-bearing (crops)plants; and also to (e) briefly present important aspects least explored on the subject.