176 



/^TAKv^ VV° ' Alternative Agricultural Research & Commercialization Center " •. 



Lesquerella: Global Rethinking 

 of Renewable Resources 



If all goes according to business 

 plan, expect to see lesquerella — a 

 desert shrub native to the 

 American Southwest — transformed 

 into an important ingredient in everything 

 from high-performance specialty plastics, 

 industrial nylons and lubricants, to high- 

 priced cosmetics. 



Dr. Keith Walker, director of develop- 

 ment for the Agrigenetics Company of San 

 Diego, California, says of lesquerella 's 

 commercial prospects: "The things that we 

 see which bode well for vegetable oils as 

 industrial products are the global rethink- 

 ing of the role of renewable resources and 

 the interest in so-called 'environmentally 

 friendly products.' These trends mean that a 

 new product may not be economically viable 

 now, but very soon it could become viable 

 due to environmental and political changes." 



Agrigenetics is so upbeat about les- 

 querella's future that it is spearheading a 

 consortium designed to replace the $30 mil- 

 lion worth of imported castor oil with 

 domestically produced lesquerella oil as 

 quickly as possible. To support this effort, 

 the Alternative Agricultural Research and 

 Commercialization (AARC) Center, a branch 

 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is 

 investing S776, 1 1 to speed development of 

 lesquerella. This investment will be repaid 

 with interest once lesquerella oil production 

 is profitable. 



Agrigenetics plans to invest an addition- 

 al 5267,000 and other partners have pledged 

 over S 1 million. Previous Agrigenetics 

 research estabhshed that lesquerella seed, 

 grown and processed with standard equip- 

 ment, produces specialty oils containing com- 

 mercially valuable hydroxy fatty acids. The 

 current project focuses on domesticating wild 

 lesquerella to raise its yield of both seed and high-quality oil. 



Lesquerella offers environmental and economic benefits, including new products made from a 

 domestic, renewable resource, and an alternative crop for farmers that requires less water than traditional 

 crops such as cotton. 



USDA-AARC CENTER • 12th & C St. S.W. • Washington, DC 20250 

 Telephone: (202) 401-4860 • Fax: (202) 401-6068 



Printed on recycled paper using soyboarib.ist^ ink 



lllustraiion Dy £3 Couiner 



Agrigenetics LP., CA 



Sponsor's Contact: Keith Walker, (619) 453-8030 

 Raw Material: Lesquerella - New Crop 



Product: Lubricants & Cosmetics 



AARC: 



Gooperators Contributions (est.): 



$ 776,110 

 $1,267,000 



