Distribution of Fatty Acids and Their Ratios in Indian Rapeseed-Mustard Germplasm

A germplasm collection of 49 entries comprising 44 germplasm of Brassica juncea (Indian mustard), 3 low erucic acid varieties of B. juncea and two double zero varieties of Brasssica napus (gobhi sarson) were analyzed for fatty acid composition of their seed oil. All the 44 germplasm of B. juncea showed high level of erucic acid content. The highest erucic acid content (46.82%) was observed in germplasm UP-II-127. The u-6/u-3 ratio varied from 0.83–2.84. Oleic to linoleic acid ratio (stability index) ranged from 0.58–2.90 in different genotypes. The genotypes with high elongation ratio accumulated high amount of erucic acid and high desaturation efficiency was observed in B. juncea varieties low in erucic acid content. Low erucic varieties of B. juncea showed increase in oleic and linoleic acid content while double zero varieties of B. napus showed proportional increase in oleic acid content with reduction of erucic acid content.