Niger Seed

Niger is cultivated as an oil seed crop, the seeds yielding about 30% of a clear, excellent, edible oil which is slow-drying, used in foods, paints, and soaps, and as an illuminant. It is used as a substitute for olive oil, can be mixed with linseed oil, and is used as an adulterant for rape oil, sesame oil, et al. Seeds can also be used fried or as a condiment. Seeds pressed with honey are made into cakes in Ethiopia, and the press-cake from oil extraction is used for livestock feed. Whole plants are used as green manure in the pre-flowering stage.