The grasses, or Gramineae, are ecologically and agriculturally the most
important family of plants in the world. Cereal grasses and herbage grasses
are the main sources of food for human beings and domesticated animals.
The cereals are annual grasses whose relatively large grains allowed the
development of technologies as diverse as milling, baking, malting and
brewing. Starch and proteins are the major components of cereal grains
in quantitative terms, and it is not surprising that they have received most
attention from cereal scientists. However, we have become increasingly
aware that the relatively small quantities of lipids in cereal grains are,
nonetheless, important, particularly through their ability to modify the
properties of starch and proteins. In the case of corn oil, rice bran oil and
wheat germ oil, the cereal lipids themselves represent the final product. In
this book an international group of experts bring together their knowledge
and experience to provide a comprehensive review of cereal lipids and
the role they play in cereal processing and products.