Overview
- Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed bred to be low in erucic acid. As a term canola may refer to both an edible oil produced from the seed of any of several varieties of the Brassicaceae family of plants, and to those plants, namely a cultivar of Brassica napus L., Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera, syn. B. campestris L. or Brassica juncea. To be called canola, the oil must contain less than 2% erucic acid and the meal must contain less than 30 micromoles of aliphatic glucosinolates per gram.
- Consumption of the oil is common and is claimed not only to be completely safe for human and animal consumption, but also to be among the healthiest of plant-derived oils, having a relatively low amount of saturated fat and a high content of polyunsaturated fats. It is also used as a source of biodiesel.
