Variation in Fatty Acid Composition of Oat Groats from Different Cultivars1

Relative concentration of six fatty acids was measured in oat (Avena sativa L.) groats from 15 cultivars grown in three locations in two crop years. Palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acids comprised over 95% of the acids measured. Ranges were: palmitic, 16.2 to 21.8%; oleic, 28.4 to 40.3%; linoleic, 36.6 to 45.8%. These fatty acids were related individually with total lipids to give these correlation coefficients: palmitic, r = −0.76 (P≤0.01); oleic, r = 0.91 (P≤0.01); linoleic, r = −0.85 (P≤0.01). Cultivars varied significantly (P≤0.01) for each fatty acid except stearic. Broad‐sense heritabilities of the three acids were high: palmitic, 91.4%; oleic, 98.6%,; linoleic, 95.7%.