Flax Engineering for Biomedical Application

Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is an important crop plant that is widely distributed in the Mediterranean and temperate climate zones. It has great significance for industry as a valuable source of oil and fibres. A unique feature of flax is the possibility of whole plant exploitation with almost no waste products. For this reason, flax has quite significant potential for biotechnological application. To increase the valuable qualities of flax products, the flax genome has been genetically modified, with the specific aims to improve the plant’s pathogen resistance, taste and nutritional properties, and to produce pharmaceuticals and other compounds. In this chapter, we describe the plant characteristics that show the biochemical and industrial importance of flax oil and fibres and their various possible applications and the relevant genetic modifications. Since ancient times, flax has been known to be a source of oil and fibres, and it has been cultivated as a dual-purpose plant for a long time. Nowadays, it is a multi-purpose plant and its exploitation is not restricted to the production of linen fibre and oil. Actually, whole plant exploitation is possible, which justifies the name given to it by Linnaeus: L. usitatissimum, meaning “useful flax”. There is a wide range of possible applications of flax (Fig.1). The long fibres are used in the textile industry, and the short fibres in paper production, isolation materials and biocomposite production. The wooden shives released during flax scutching can serve as an energy source. Flax seeds also have many important applications, and due to its high nutritional value, it is used in the food, pharmaceutical and health care industries. The seedcake, which is rich in antioxidants, is used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The development of molecular biology emerged as an important tool for the genetic modification of plants, and enabled the improvement of many different features of wild type plants. These modifications broadened the range of practical applications for flax, making the plant more valuable and more significant for the innovative biotechnological industry.