Lipid composition of seed oils of nine Spanish pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cultivars
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Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an ancient fruit tree traditionally cultivated in the Near and Middle East. Presently, it’s most important growing regions include Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, USA, Italy and Spain, being the last country the largest European exporter. Pomegranate fruit can be divided into several anatomical compartments: outside peel, inside peel, and arils (pulp and seeds), being the last usually used for fresh consumption, juice, jams and jellies production. Even though pomegranate seeds are an industrial byproduct, recent reports have highlighted their potential use as a source of oil with beneficial chemical attributes. In spite of this the main objective of the present work was to characterize the seed oils of nine pomegranate varieties of European origin, collected in Spain, including their fatty acid and vitamin E compositions, to assess their potential to be used as nutraceuticals or functional food ingredients. All seed lipid fraction consisted mainly on punicic acid (c9,t11,c13 C-18:3) (ranging between 77.3% and 83.6% of total fatty acids), followed by small amounts of linoleic acid (C18:2n6), oleic acid (C18:1n9) and palmitic acid (C16:0). Regarding vitamin E composition, α-, γ-, δ-tocopherols were found in all pomegranate seed oils, mainly γ-tocopherol, with total tocopherols ranging from 174.5 to 627.3 mg/100g oil. Conversely, tocotrienols were not detected.
In conclusion, these results indicate that pomegranate seed oils are rich in punicic acid, a conjugated linolenic acid with interesting anti-carcinogenic activity, being simultaneously rich in tocopherols, of technological and nutritionally relevance.
