Domestication of Oenothera as a new oil plant

Plant oils rich in gamma linolenic acid (GLA) have been widely used as essential ingredients of medicines, healing products, cosmetics etc. Although GLA is widely distributed in many plant families, the Oenothera genus has been shown to be the most promising to be used as a new oil plant in the future. In the past, evening primrose was occasionally planted in China as an ornamental, remaining unimproved, without any valuable agronomic characters. In Chongqing municipality in the South of China, the whole growing season of Oenothera spans 320-340 days, which is too long. We collected a number of Oenothera species accessions from China and abroad and irradiated their seeds with 60Co gamma rays. From the resulting induced mutants, we selected and characterized an early-maturing line termed R5-3 that matured 35 days ahead of the control. GLA and oil content in seeds of R5-3 were also higher than those of the control, and its seed yield was 1800 kg/ha. Meanwhile suitable cultural practices were successfully established. Another new line, H8-1, with high density of capsules was obtained by using interspecific hybridization. (author)