Properties of a biochemical composition of wild flax seeds

There was studied the biochemical composition of seeds and seed weights of 11 wild flax species: L. austriacum, L. hirsutum, L. narbonense, L. perenne, L. thracicum, L. angustifolium, L. bienne, L. hispanicum, L. crepitans, L. grandiflorum, L. pubescens. The wild species were compared with the cultivated flax on protein content, oil content, fatty-acid composition of oil and 1000 seeds weight. Indicators of oil content of the studied species were within 24.6-41.2%, which was significantly lower than those ones of oil flax varieties. All wild species had significantly lower 1000 seeds weight. Only L. thracicum was on the same level with cultivated flax in protein content, while other species were inferior to it. This study showed that, generally, all studied wild had fatty-acid composition of oil typical for Linum-type. Variation in contents of fatty acids in oil is shown and it is noted that perennial species differ from annual in lower content of saturated fatty acids. Study showed that, compared with the cultured flax, L. hispanicum differs with increased content of saturated fatty acids in oil, L. grandiflorum - with increased content of oleic acid and L. thracicum - with increased content of linoleic acid. This fact offers the prospect of a greater use of wild species in the genetic and breeding work on development of specialized varieties of flax.