Rapeseed

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Rapeseed

Rapeseed (Brassica napus), also known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rapaseed and (in the case of one particular group of cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of its decorative or useful characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when Plant propagation it retains those characteristics....
s) canola
Canola

Canola is one of two cultivars of rapeseed or Field mustard . Their seeds are used to produce edible oil that is fit for human consumption because it has lower levels of erucic acid than traditional rapeseed oils and to produce livestock feed because it has reduced levels of the toxin glucosin....
, is a bright yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae or Cruciferae, also known as the crucifers, the mustard family or cabbage family is a Family of flowering plants ....
(mustard or cabbage family). The name derives from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
for turnip

Turnip

The turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender, varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as fodder for livestock....
, rapum or rapa, and is first recorded in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
at the end of the 14th century. Older writers usually distinguished the turnip and rape by the adjectives round and long(-rooted) respectively.

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Encyclopedia

Rapeseed (Brassica napus), also known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rapaseed and (in the case of one particular group of cultivar

Cultivar

Brassicaceae

Latin

Turnip

English language

Triangle of U

The Triangle of U is a theory about the evolution and relationships between members of the plant genus Brassica. It says that the genomes of three ancestral species of Brassica combined to create three of the common contemporary vegetables and oilseed crop species....
).

Cultivation and uses

Rapeseed is grown for the production of animal feed

Animal feed

Animal feed may refer to:*Compound feed, commercial pelleted food produced in a feed mill and fed to domestic livestock*Fodder, food given to domestic livestock, including plants cut and carried to them...
, vegetable oil for human consumption, and biodiesel

Biodiesel

Biodiesel refers to a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of long chain alkyl esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat , which can be used in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles....
; leading producers include the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
, Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. In India, it is grown on 13% of cropped land. According to the United States Department of Agriculture

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive departments responsible for developing and executing Federal government of the United States policy on farming, agriculture, and food....
, rapeseed was the third leading source of vegetable oil in the world in 2000, after soybean

Soybean

The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia. The plant is classed as an oilseed rather than a Pulse . It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years as a food and a component of drugs....
and oil palm

Oil palm

The oil palms comprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis is native to west Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American Oil Palm Elaeis oleifera is native to tropical Central America and South A...
, and also the world's second leading source of protein

Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
meal, although only one-fifth of the production of the leading soybean meal. World production is growing rapidly, with FAO

Food and Agriculture Organization

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger....
reporting that 36 million tonnes of rapeseed was produced in the 2003-4 season, and 46 million tonnes in 2004-5. In Europe, rapeseed is primarily cultivated for animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
feed

Feed

Feed may refer to:* As a verb, to feed means to give food to, or to eat food. See feeding.* Feed as a noun often refers to animal feed, food given to or meant for livestock ...
(owing to its very high lipid

Lipid

Lipids are broadly defined as any fat-soluble , naturally-occurring molecule, such as fats, oils, waxes, cholesterol, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins , monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others....
and medium protein content), and is a leading option for Europeans to avoid importation of GMO

GMO

A GMO is a genetically modified organism.GMO may also refer to:* Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, a U.S. railroad carrier corporation* General Medical Officer, a designation for United States Army soldiers...
products.

Natural rapeseed oil contains 50% erucic acid

Erucic acid

Erucic acid is a Monounsaturated fat omega-9 fatty acid fatty acid, denoted 22:1 ?-9. It is prevalent in rapeseed, wallflower seed, and mustard seed, making up 40-50% of their oils....
, which is mildly toxic to humans in large doses but is used as a food additive in smaller doses. Wild type seeds also contain high levels of glucosinolates (mustard oil glucosindes), chemical compounds that significantly lowered the nutritional value of rape seed press cakes for animal feed. Canola

Canola

Canola is one of two cultivars of rapeseed or Field mustard . Their seeds are used to produce edible oil that is fit for human consumption because it has lower levels of erucic acid than traditional rapeseed oils and to produce livestock feed because it has reduced levels of the toxin glucosin....
, originally a syncopated form of the abbreviation "Can.O., L-A." (Canadian Oilseed, Low-Acid) that was used by the Manitoba government to label the seed during its experimental stages, is now a tradename for 'double low' (low erucic acid and low glucosinolate) rapeseed. Sometimes the "Canola-quality" sticky note ^{[what does this mean?]} is applied to other varieties as well.

The rapeseed is the valuable, harvested component of the crop. The crop is also grown as a winter-cover crop

Cover crop

Broadly defined, a cover crop is any Annual plant, Biennial plant, or perennial plant grown as a monoculture or polyculture , to improve any number of conditions associated with sustainable agriculture....
. It provides good coverage of the soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
in winter, and limits nitrogen

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
run-off. The plant is ploughed back in the soil or used as bedding. On some ecological or organic

Organic farming

Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on crop rotation, green manure, compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pest s, excluding or strictly limiting the use of synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, plant growth regulators, livestock feed additives, and gen...
operations, livestock such as sheep

Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
or cattle

Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
are allowed to graze on the plants.

Processing of rapeseed for oil production provides rapeseed animal meal as a by-product. The by-product is a high-protein animal feed, competitive with soya

Soybean

Cattle

Pig

Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
s and chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a Domestication fowl. Recent evidence suggests that domestication of the chicken was under way in Vietnam over 10,000 years ago....
s (though less valuable for these). The meal has a very low content of the glucosinolates responsible for metabolism disruption in cattle and pigs. Rapeseed "oil cake" is also used as a fertilizer in China, and may be used for ornamentals, such as Bonsai, as well.

Rapeseed leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
and stems are also edible, similar to those of the related bok choy or kale

Kale

Kale or Borecole is a form of cabbage , green in color, in which the central leaves do not form a head. It is considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms....
. Some varieties of rapeseed (called ??, yóu cài, lit. "oil vegetable" in Chinese

Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
; yau choy in Cantonese; c?i d?u in Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese , formerly known under French colonization as Annamese , is the national language and official language language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of the Vietnamese people , who constitute 86% of Demographics of Vietnam, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese, most of whom live in the United States....
; and ???, nanohana in Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
) are sold as greens, primarily in Asian groceries, including those in California where it is known as yao choy or tender greens.

Rapeseed is a heavy nectar producer, and honeybees produce a light colored, but peppery honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees , and derived from the nectar of flowers. According to the United States National Honey Board and various international food regulations, "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance?this includes, but is not limited to, water or other sweeteners...
from it. It must be extracted immediately after processing is finished, as it will quickly granulate in the honeycomb

Honeycomb

A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal waxcells built by honey bees in their beehive to contain their larva and stores of honey and pollen.beekeeping may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey....
and will be impossible to extract. The honey is usually blended with milder honeys, if used for table use, or sold as bakery

Bakery

A bakery is an establishment which produces or/and sells bread, pies, pastries, cakes & cupcakes, biscuits, cookies, muffins, Roll , doughnuts, etc....
grade. Rapeseed growers contract

Contract

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act which is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement....
with beekeeper

Beekeeper

A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen; pollination fruits and vegetables; raising Queen and bees for sale to other farmers; and/or for purposes satisfying natural scientific curiosity....
s for the pollination of the crop.

Nutritional value

Canola oil (or rapeseed oil) contains both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in a ratio of 2:1 and is second only to flax oil

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean region to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent....
in omega-3 fatty acid. Canola oil's proponents claim that it is one of the most heart-healthy oils and has been reported to reduce cholesterol

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a lipidic, waxy alcohol found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and membrane fluidity....
levels, lower serum tryglyceride levels, and keep platelets from sticking together.

According to the Weston Price Foundation, Canola oil can have a number of health risks associated with it.

Biodiesel

Rapeseed oil is used in the manufacture of biodiesel

Biodiesel

Diesel

Diesel or diesel fuel in general is any fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillation of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid or gas to liquid diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted....
in ratios varying from 2% to 20% biodiesel. Formerly, owing to the costs of growing, crushing, and refining rapeseed biodiesel, rapeseed derived biodiesel cost more to produce than standard diesel fuel. Prices of rapeseed oil are at very high levels presently (start November 05) owing to increased demand on rapeseed oil for this purpose. Rapeseed oil is the preferred oil stock for biodiesel production in most of Europe, partly because rapeseed produces more oil per unit of land area compared to other oil sources, such as soy beans.

Health effects

Rapeseed has been linked with adverse effects in asthma

Asthma

Asthma is a common chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in which the Lung constrict, become inflammation, and are lined with excessive amounts of thickened mucus, often in response to one or more triggers....
and hay fever

Hay Fever

Hay Fever is a comic play written by No?l Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Best described as a cross between high farce and a comedy of manners, the play is set in an English country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish b...
sufferers. Some suggest that oilseed pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of Gametophyte , which produce the male gametes of spermatophyta. A hard coat covering the pollen grain protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens of the flower to the pistil of the next flower....
increases breathing difficulties. But this is unlikely as rapeseed is an entomophilous crop, with pollen transfer primarily by insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s. Others suggest that this is caused by the inhalation of oilseed rape dust, and that allergies

Allergy

Allergy is a Disorder of the immune system often also referred to as atopy. Allergic reactions occur to Natural environmental substances known as allergens; these reactions are Acquired disorder, predictable and rapid....
to the pollen are relatively rare. It may also be that since rapeseed in flower has a distinctive and pungent smell, hay fever sufferers wrongly blame the rapeseed just because they can smell it. An alternative explanation may be that it is simply the sheer volume of rapeseed pollen in the air around farmland which triggers an allergic reaction in hayfever sufferers on inhalation, or following prolonged exposure to high levels.

Controversy

The Monsanto Company

Monsanto

The Monsanto Company is an American Multinational corporation agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as "Roundup"....
has genetically engineered

Genetic engineering

Engineering There are a number of ways through which genetic engineering is accomplished. Essentially, the process has five main steps# Isolation of the genes of interest...
new cultivars of rapeseed that are resistant to the effects of its herbicide

Herbicide

A herbicide is used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant hormones....
Roundup

Roundup

Roundup is the brand name of a systemic, broad-spectrum herbicide produced by the United States company Monsanto and contains the active ingredient glyphosate....
. They have sought compensation from farmers found to have the Roundup Ready gene

Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
in Canola in their fields without paying a license fee. These farmers have claimed the Roundup Ready gene was blown into their fields and crossed with unaltered Canola. Other farmers claim that after spraying Roundup in non-Canola fields to kill weeds before planting, Roundup Ready volunteers

Volunteer (botany)

In gardening and botany terminology, a volunteer is a plant that grows on its own, rather than being deliberately planted by a human farmer or gardener....
are left behind, causing extra expense to rid their fields of the weeds.

In a closely followed legal battle, the Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the supreme court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal Appeal, and its decisions are stare decisis, binding upon all lower courts of...
found in favor of Monsanto's patent infringement claim for unlicensed growing of Roundup Ready in its 2004 ruling on Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser

Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser

Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser [2004] 1 S.C.R. 902, 2004 SCC 34 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada case on patent rights for biotechnology....
. The case garnered international controversy as a court-sanctioned legitimation for the global patent protection of genetically modified crops. However, Schmeiser was not required to pay damages as he did not benefit financially from the GMO crop in his field. More recently, in March 2008, an out-of-court settlement between Monsanto and Schmeiser has an agreement for Monsanto to clean up the entire GMO-canola

Canola

Production

Top Rapeseed Producers - 2005 (million metric ton)
	13.0
	8.4
	6.4
	4.7
	4.4
	1.9
	1.4
	1.1
World Total	46.4
Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

Worldwide Rapeseed Production (million metric ton)
1965	5.2
1975	8.8
1985	19.2
1995	34.2
2005	46.4
Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

Worldwide production of rapeseed (including canola) rose to 46.4 million metric tons in 2005, the highest recorded total (source: FAO).

Pests and diseases

Animal pests

Harlequin bug (Murgantia histrionica)
Flea beetle
Flea beetle

Flea beetles is a general name applied to the small, jumping beetles of the leaf beetle family . They make up the tribe Alticini, which is a part of the subfamily Galerucinae, though they were historically classified as a subfamily in their own right....
s (Phyllotreta sp.),
Diamondback moth
Diamondback moth

The Diamondback moth , sometimes called cabbage moth, is a European moth believed to originate in the Mediterranean region that has since spread worldwide....
s (Plutella xylostella),
Bertha armyworms (Mamestra configurata),
Root maggots (Delia sp.)
Grasshopper
Grasshopper

Grasshoppers are insects of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish them from Tettigoniidae, they are sometimes referred to as short-horned grasshoppers....
s
Lygus bugs (Lygus)
Bronzed field beetle larvae
Snail
Snail

The word snail is a common name for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled animal shells in the adult stage. When the word snail is used in a general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails....
s and slug
Slug

Slug is a common non-scientific word, which is often applied to any gastropod Mollusca whatsoever that has a very reduced shell, a small internal shell, or no shell at all....
s

Diseases

Beet western yellows virus
Beet western yellows virus

Beet western yellows virus is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Luteoviridae.External links*...
Blackleg
Blackleg

The word blackleg has more than one meaning:-*An older slang term for a strikebreaker, as in Blackleg Miner; scab is the word used today....
, caused by the fungus Leptosphaeria maculans
Clubroot
Clubroot

Clubroot is a common disease of cabbages, radishes, turnips and other plants belonging to the family Cruciferae . It is caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae, which was once considered a slime mold but is now put in the group Phytomyxea....
, caused by protist
Protist

Protists ; eukaryote microorganisms. Historically, protists were treated as the kingdom Protista but this group is no longer recognized in modern taxonomy....
Plasmodiophora brassicae
Sclerotinia white stem rot
White rust disease, caused by the fungus Albugo candida

Genome sequencing and genetics

The 'A' genome component of the amphidiploid Rapeseed species B. napus is currently being sequenced by an international consortium.

External links

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (05-Dec-2001).. ENV/JM/MONO(2001)13. Retrieved 2006-11-27
University of Melbourne (1999) Multilingual multiscript plant name database. . General Botanical Index. Retrieved 2006-11-27
Oilseed rape in the environment and in agriculture

Rapeseed

Cultivation and uses

Nutritional value

Biodiesel

Health effects

Controversy

Production

Pests and diseases

Animal pests

Diseases

Genome sequencing and genetics

See also

External links

Error in /topics/Rapeseed