Premier source of polyunsaturated linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid necessary for healthy development and growth. Light, mild taste ideal for dressings and salad oils.

The thistle-like safflower plant traces its origins back countless centuries to India and the Egyptian Valley of the Nile. The flowers of the safflower plant provided the earliest principal use for this crop as the naturally bright red dye extracted from the safflower blooms was used for coloring textiles.

Much later, researchers in quest of oil crops suited for California's semi-arid climate decided to give safflower a try. The early results were mildly interesting but the agronomic picture was dimmed by the rather low oil percentages in the seeds, and the somewhat temperamental growth habits of the crop.

The confluence of a number of events provided the stimuli necessary to move safflower forward on the road to commercial success in California. Scientists working separately at the University of Nebraska and later at the University of California at Davis were able to make great progress in finding varieties better adapted to California's climate, and simultaneously make a substantial increase in both oil content and seed per acre. Commercially, a major vegetable oil company in California had the personnel with a keen understanding of the needs of growers, processors and consumers, plus the foresight to invest money in this research.

Initial production growth in the 1950's was driven by industrial applications in the USA. In Japan an oversight in the import duty code provided safflower a competitive advantage over soybeans. Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, cholesterol's effect on heart disease and the encouragement to consume polyunsaturates pushed safflower oil demand to record levels, with the introduction of safflower oil based margarines, dressings and salad oils.

In recent years, the emphasis has shifted to monounsaturates such as high oleic safflower oil and olive oil. Nonetheless, high linoleic safflower oil remains one of the best sources of linoleic acid, an "essential fatty acid" that cannot be synthesized by the human body, but is a nutritional necessity for healthy development and growth.

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