Fatty acids from Tunisian and Chinese pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) seeds

Abstract

Pomegranate seed oil is considered a powerful health-benefiting agent due to its anti-oxidative and anticarcinogenic properties. Lipids from 21 pomegranate cultivars (15 Tunisian and 6 Chinese) were extracted and fatty acids were identified. Total lipids (16% on a dry weight basis) are mainly unsaturated (ca. 88%). Qualitatively, the pomegranate fatty acid composition is identical. Quantitatively, the predominant fatty acid was linolenic acid (44.51–86.14%), followed by linoleic acid (3.57–13.92%), oleic acid (3.03–12.88%), palmitic acid (3.13–11.82%), stearic acid (1.68–15.64%), gadoleic acid (0.50–4.91%), lignoceric acid ( < 2.53%), arachidic acid ( < 1.70%) and myristic acid ( < 0.85%). Statistical methods revealed how Chinese and Tunisian pomegranate fatty acid contents may be affected by the sampling location.

Keywords::

• Punica granatum L.
• seed oils
• fatty acids
• principal component analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr Xin Yang from the School of Food Science and Engineering for gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis. The authors are also grateful to anonymous referees for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

Declarations of interest: The present work was supported by the China Scholarship Council by a senior scholarship program awarded to W.E.