In this article we will discuss about the improvement of seed oil (pufa oil) for health benefits.

Plant oil containing greatest degree of fatty acids is essential nutrients for animal in­cluding human being. The unsaturated fatty acid rice oil undoubtedly increases nutritional value of edible oil. Polies unsaturated fatty acids are popularly known as PUFA oil play a critical role in maintain cellular membranes through the regulation of cholesterol synthesis and its transport.

Source of medical studies reveals that daily dictery intake of n-3 poly unsaturated fatty acid a- linolenic acid has significant health benefits especially in risk of coronary heart disease. Con­sidering its nutrition value several attempts were made to modify or improvise seed oil accumulates high degree of unsaturated oil.

Microsomal omega-3 fatty acid desaturase is an essential enzyme in the production of n-3 poly unsaturated fatty acid α-linolenic acid during seed development. One of the major dietery source α-linolenic acids is the vegetable oil present in the seeds of flax (Linum usitatissimum) and perilla (Perilla fructescence) at the level of 40-50% of the total fatty acid content.

These plants however, could not use as chief oil source. Thus, developing a plant substitute possessing good agronomic value is highly desirable. Rice is one of the most impor­tant crops cultivated throughout Asia and their oil (Rice bran) is an important oil source in Japan, but rice seed contain less than 2% of the total fatty acid content of many rice cultivars.

Therefore, rice can be engineered to produce α-linolenic acid as it shows high agronomic prefer­ence.

α-linolenic acid is produced by introduction of double bond into the precursor linolenic acid by an enzyme omega-3 fatty acid desaturase occur mainly in the plastids. In the transfor­mation approach soyabean microsomal omega-3 fatty acid desaturase gene is transferred to rice plant under the control of strong maize ubiquitin promoter. The resulting transgenic rice plants are able to synthesize high amount of α-linolenic acid.