Oil crops Vegetable oils have gained in importance during the past few decades resulting in the doubling of the world oil crop production in the last 25 years. Oil crops have been increasingly used as raw materials for food livestock feed and non food industrial applications. Plant breeding has played an essential role in supporting these developments: Breeding for higher yield and oil content allowed for an increase in oil production per unit area whereas breeding for better oil quality has improved both the human health value of vegetable oils as well as the suitability of particular oils in specific industrial applications. Moreover newly developed unique oil qualities are opening new opportunities in agricultural production and processing. Oil crop species have been developed in various botanical families from both the monocots and dicots. Thus oil crops are a highly diverse set of species from short season annuals to perennial....