In recent years, consumers have become concerned with reducing the saturated fat content of their diet. Studies have indicated that high levels of saturated fat consumption are correlated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. The total saturated fat content of oil from current sunflower hybrids averages about 130 g kg-1. To identify sunflower germplasm with reduced saturated fatty acid composition, a total of 884 cultivated sunflower accessions from the USDA-ARS North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, Ames, Iowa, were screened for fatty acid composition by gas chromatography. PI 250542, a cultivar collected in Egypt by Paul Knowles and deposited into the National Plant Germplasm System in 1958, was identified as an accession with reduced saturated fatty acid content. The fatty acid composition of 26 halfseeds of PI 250542 was determined, and the seeds with lowest saturated fatty acids were grown in the greenhouse. Pollen from a single plant was used to pol linate NMS HA 89, and the F1 seed was grown in the field and self-pollinated. After three generations of selection by half-seed analysis, two lines with a low saturated fatty acid trait were selected. Line RS1 has a striped black and dark gray achene, whereas line RS2 has a light gray achene which often bleaches to white when grown in the field. The total saturated fatty acid composition of RS1 including C16 to C24 fatty acids was 77 g kg-1, and for RS2 was 76 g kg-1 when grown at Fargo, North Dakota, in 2000. To determine inheritance of the reduced saturated fatty acid trait, RS1 and RS2 were pollinated by HA 821, a high saturated fatty acid line, and grown in the greenhouse. The resulting F1 seeds were slightly higher in saturated fatty acids than the RS1 or RS2 parents, but far lower than the HA 821 parent, suggesting that the reduced saturated fatty acid trait was partially dominant.