TITLE:
Fatty Acid Compositional Studies of Lesser Known Acacia tortilis Seed Oil
AUTHORS:
Manjoosha Srivastava, Shailesh Kumar
KEYWORDS:
A. tortilis; Seed Oil; Fatty Acid; Cholesterol; Fat
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.4 No.9A,
August
22,
2013
ABSTRACT: A. tortilis is commonly known as “Israeli babool”. The species is exposed to the world for its pods, gum and other aerial parts as fodder &feed for cattles. The plant was used as antidiabetic, antidiarrhoeal, antiasthmatic and also had several other medicinal benefits but the seed oil was not explored to the extent of its real potential. Hence the study was carried out to characterize the seed for oil and analysis of fatty acid composition through GC for quality control and maintenance. Commercial indices of oil were also estimated. Extracted oil is rich in Linolenic acid (50.43%) and Linoleic acid (36.74%). Beside this palmitic, stearic and oleic acid are other fatty acids identified. MUFA, PUFA, SFA and omega-6/ omega-3 ratio were also found to be promising for its potentiality in edible and clinical uses. The investigation thus scopes the utility of oil and prospects the lesser known plant seed as alternative oil source of nutritional and therapeutic importance.