Effects of Fruit Cracking and Maturity Stage on Quality Attributes and Fatty Acid Composition of Pomegranate Seed Oils

Figures & data

Table 1. Effects of variety, harvesting date, and fruit cracking on pomegranate seed oil characteristics

Variety				Harvesting date			Fruit cracking
Parameter	Mean square	F	Probability	Mean square	F	Probability	Mean square	F	Probability
Oil content	2906.42	5.05	0.04 *	1383.05	2.41	0.14 NS	428.50	0.75	0.40 NS
Free acidity	2.82	563.97	0.00 **	3.47	694.06	0.00**	0.72	144.79	0.00**
Peroxide value	0.25	0.98	0.34 NS	0.07	0.26	0.02*	0.03	0.11	0.04*
β-carotene	0.23	57.85	0.00 **	0.36	88.41	0.00**	0.47	116.96	0.00**
Total phenols	81.84	5.02	0.04 *	213.49	13.10	0.00**	2580.47	158.34	0.00**
Fatty acids
C16:0	3.32	15.12	0.00 **	2.86	4. 72	0.04*	0.83	3.78	0.04*
C16:1	0.00	10.67	0.05 *	0.00	2.67	0.12 NS	0.00	2.67	0.12 NS
C17:0	0.00	2.10	0.17 NS	0.00	2.10	0.17 NS	0.00	0.00	1.00 NS
C18:0	0.09	14.22	0.00 **	0.02	3.49	0.08 NS	0.00	0.11	0.75 NS
C18:1	0.28	2.13	0.17 NS	0.00	0.01	0.94 NS	0.09	0.69	0.42 NS
C18:2	0.16	4.96	0.04 *	0.21	5.80	0.03*	0.21	5.78	0.03*
C18:3	0.01	4.60	0.05 NS	0.00	1.15	0.30 NS	0.01	4.60	0.05*
C20:0	0.01	1.06	0.32 NS	0.01	1.06	0.32 NS	0.00	0.05	0.82 NS
C20:1	0.00	0.66	0.43 NS	0.00	0.66	0.43 NS	0.00	0.66	0.43 NS
Punicic A.	1.39	1.69	0.21 NS	2.22	2.70	0.12 NS	1.37	1.67	0.22 NS
α-Eleostearic A.	11.73	2.63	0.13 NS	0.38	0.09	0.77 NS	5.84	1.31	0.27 NS
Catalpic A.	0.18	0.51	0.49 NS	0.02	0.06	0.81 NS	1.77	5.16	0.03*
C22:0	0.11	4.47	0.04 *	0.02	0.96	0.34 NS	0.00	0.15	0.70 NS
C22:1	0.01	1.37	0.26 NS	0.00	0.42	0.53 NS	0.56	6.07	0.04*

NS, not significant at P < 0.05; * Significant at P < 0.05; ** Significant at P < 0.01.

Table 2. Effects of fruit cracking and harvesting date on quality attributes of pomegranate seed oils from two varieties (Gabsi and Chelfi)

Variety		Gabsi			Chelfi
		Harvesting date		Harvesting date
Quality attributes	Fruit type	1 September Mid-October		1 September Mid-October
Seed oil content (g kg ^−1)	Intact	199.82 ± 44.80	183.59 ± 6.80	172.01 ± 19.10	165.97 ± 22.80
	Cracked	205.89 ± 29.30	193.00 ± 8.10	190.93 ± 17.30	165.37 ± 20.90
Free acidity (%)	Intact	1.35 ± 0.00	1.40 ± 0.10	1.27 ± 0.00	1.35 ± 0.10
	Cracked	0.92 ± 0.00	3.77 ± 0.00	1.00 ± 0.10	1.07 ± 0.20
Peroxide value (meq kg ^−1)	Intact	2.47 ± 0.10	2.88 ± 0.50	2.38 ± 0.50	2.70 ± 0.40
	Cracked	5.35 ± 0.50	3.95 ± 0.60	4.25 ± 0.70	4.50 ± 1.50
β-carotene (mg kg ^−1)	Intact	4.13 ± 0.00	3.08 ± 0.10	3.43 ± 0.00	3.55 ± 0.10
	Cracked	3.06 ± 0.00	2.96 ± 0.00	3.49 ± 0.20	3.55 ± 0.00
Total phenols (mg kg ^−1)	Intact	46.59 ± 1.60	45.45 ± 1.60	34.09 ± 1.60	33.52 ± 10.40
	Cracked	61.36 ± 1.60	59.09 ± 10.40	71.02 ± 0.80	60.80 ± 10.40

Table 3. Effects of fruit cracking and harvesting date on fatty acid composition (% of total) of pomegranate seed oils from two varieties (Gabsi and Chelfi)

Variety		Gabsi		Chelfi
		Harvesting date		Harvesting date
	Fruit type	1 September	Mid-October	1 September	Mid-October
Saturated
C16:0	Intact	2.57 ± 0.01	1.36 ± 1.88	2.61 ± 0.02	2.87 ± 0.01
	Cracked	1.32 ± 1.78	3.07 ± 0.40	2.58 ± 0.03	3.02 ± 0.46
C17:0	Intact	0.05 ± 0.01	0.04 ± 0.01	0.04 ± 0.01	0.05 ± 0.00
	Cracked	0.05 ± 0.01	0.05 ± 0.01	0.04 ± 0.00	0.05 ± 0.01
C18:0	Intact	1.38 ± 0.03	1.55 ± 0.01	1.51 ± 0.02	1.57 ± 0.03
	Cracked	1.37 ± 0.01	1.57 ± 0.12	1.40 ± 0.06	1.60 ± 0.15
C20:0	Intact	0.43 ± 0.03	0.43 ± 0.12	0.38 ± 0.04	0.52 ± 0.12
	Cracked	0.48 ± 0.10	0.44 ± 0.04	0.44 ± 0.06	0.42 ± 0.06
C22:0	Intact	0.34 ± 0.24	0.64 ± 0.35	0.43 ± 0.01	0.30 ± 0.24
	Cracked	0.46 ± 0.07	0.14 ± 0.03	0.26 ± 0.16	0.34 ± 0.17
Monounsaturated
C16:1	Intact	0.03 ± 0.01	0.03 ± 0.01	0.03 ± 0.01	0.05 ± 0.01
	Cracked	0.03 ± 0.00	0.05 ± 0.02	0.03 ± 0.00	0.03 ± 0.00
C18:1	Intact	3.71 ± 0.70	3.84 ± 0.13	3.44 ± 0.02	3.27 ± 0.28
	Cracked	2.95 ± 0.45	3.60 ± 0.11	3.36 ± 0.21	3.70 ± 0.31
C20:1	Intact	0.46 ± 0.00	0.41 ± 0.07	0.42 ± 0.00	0.45 ± 0.05
	Cracked	0.48 ± 0.01	0.43 ± 0.03	0.47 ± 0.04	0.44 ± 0.06
C22:1	Intact	0.19 ± 0.11	0.34 ± 0.08	0.23 ± 0.02	0.22 ± 0.09
	Cracked	0.30 ± 0.11	0.82 ± 0.57	0.20 ± 0.18	0.43 ± 0.0
Polyunsaturated
C18:2	Intact	4.22 ± 0.02	4.04 ± 0.15	4.12 ± 0.03	4.47 ± 0.03
	Cracked	4.23 ± 0.10	4.36 ± 0.31	4.49 ± 0.18	4.52 ± 0.30
C18:3	Intact	0.02 ± 0.00	0.05 ± 0.00	0.04 ± 0.01	0.02 ± 0.03
	Cracked	0.11 ± 0.09	0.05 ± 0.00	0.04 ± 0.00	0.02 ± 0.00
Punicic acid	Intact	74.50 ± 0.94	79.57 ± 4.92	73.53 ± 0.04	73.18 ± 0.70
	Cracked	73.61 ± 0.25	73.45 ± 0.71	74.18 ± 0.11	72.31 ± 1.95
α-eleostearic acid	Intact	9.99 ± 0.45	6.12 ± 4.58	10.73 ± 0.01	7.03 ± 5.53
	Cracked	10.46 ± 0.08	9.64 ± 0.47	9.49 ± 0.02	10.14 ± 0.40
Catalpic acid	Intact	2.81 ± 0.32	-	2.34 ± 0.01	1.80 ± 1.89
	Cracked	2.78 ± 0.10	2.82 ± 0.87	3.02 ± 0.05	2.99 ± 0.60
SFA	Intact	4.77 ± 0.06	5.50 ± 0.47	4.97 ± 0.02	5.31 ± 0.08
	Cracked	3.68 ± 0.39	5.26 ± 0.12	4.72 ± 0.06	5.42 ± 0.17
MUFA	Intact	4.39 ± 0.82	4.62 ± 0.29	4.12 ± 0.05	3.99 ± 0.43
	Cracked	3.76 ± 0.57	4.90 ± 0.73	4.06 ± 0.43	4.60 ± 0.37
PUFA	Intact	91.54 ± 1.73	89.78 ± 9.65	90.76 ± 0.10	86.50 ± 8.18
	Cracked	91.19 ± 0.62	90.32 ± 2.36	91.22 ± 0.36	89.98 ± 3.25
UFA	Intact	95.92 ± 0.28	94.88 ± 1.30	94.87 ± 0.01	90.49 ± 0.96
	Cracked	94.94 ± 0.22	94.74 ± 0.29	95.28 ± 0.09	94.58 ± 0.40
SFA/UFA	Intact	0.05 ± 0.23	0.06 ± 0.36	0.05 ± 1.25	0.06 ± 0.08
	Cracked	0.04 ± 1.97	0.06 ± 0.41	0.05 ± 0.73	0.06 ± 0.42

SFA, saturated fatty acids; MUFA, mono-unsaturated fatty acids; PUFA, poly-unsaturated fatty acids; UFA, unsaturated fatty acids.

Figure 1. Correlations between characteristics of pomegranate seed oil (Pearson coefficient)

**: Correlations are significant at P ≤ 0.01; *: Correlations are significant at P ≤ 0.05 according to Pearson correlation. SFA, Saturated fatty acids; UFA, Unsaturated fatty acids.