Antioxidant Distributions and Triacylglycerol Molecular Species of Sesame Seeds (Sesamum indicum)

Abstract

AbstractExtracted lipids from sesame (Sesamum indicum) seeds of three varieties were determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for endogenous antioxidants. The molecular species and fatty acid (FA) distribution of triacylglycerol (TAG) isolated from total lipids in sesame seeds were analyzed by a combination of argentation thin‐layer chromatography (TLC) and gas chromatography (GC), and were investigated in relation to their antioxidant distribution. γ‐Tocopherol was present in highest concentration, and δ‐, and α‐tocopherols were very small amounts. Sesamin and sesamolin were the main lignan components. A modified argentation‐TLC procedure, developed to optimize the separation of the complex mixture of total TAG, provided 12 different groups of TAG, based on both the degree of unsaturation and the total acyl‐chain length of FA groups. With a few exceptions, the major TAG components were SM2 (6.5–6.7%), SMD (19.8–20.7%), M2D (15.0–26.3%), MD2 (23.6–35.0%), and D3 (7.7–10.7%) (where S denotes a saturated FA, M denotes a monoene, D denotes a diene, and T denotes a triene). It seems that the three varieties were highly related to each other based on the FA composition of the TAG as well as the distribution pattern in the different TAG molecular species. These results suggest that there are no essential differences in the oil components among the three varieties.