In the last two decades many new lines of sunflower with modified fatty acid composition have been produced. The most successful development has been the production of high or ultra-high oleic mutants [14–16], which produce oils with fatty acid compositions similar to olive oil (Table 1, the basis of the healthy Mediterranean diet). Furthermore, the high levels of oleic acid make this oil more stable than most seed oils used for frying and storage. So, the cultivation and consumption of high oleic sunflower oil increases yearly all over the world with high acceptance both by industry
and consumers. Moreover, more recent programs of sunflower improvement have produced a second generation of modified sunflower oils in which their fatty acid composition differed very significantly from that of regular sunflower (Table 1).