Oil plants

Oil plants.Plants used to produce edible and other oil products by pressing the plant's seeds or fruits. They are used in the vegetable-oil industry. The crushed seeds and other by-products are used extensively as feed and fertilizer. The oldest oil plants in Ukraine are flax and hemp. Sunflower and mustard were introduced in the 18th century, false flax and rape in the 19th century, and castor bean, peanut, perilla, and others in the 20th century. The most widespread oil plants in Ukraine today are sunflower, flax, hemp, castor bean, and rape; 1.75 million ha of land were devoted to the first three crops in 1987. Some peanuts, perilla, mustard, and mint are also cultivated, and some corn is used to produce oil. Attempts to cultivate cotton, a good source of oil, in Ukraine were unsuccessful.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]