Direct measurement of fatty acid composition of sunflower and variation of the fatty acids distribution with different treatments of fertilizer using HPLC technique

Abstract

The difference in the composition of fatty acid in the seed oil of sunflower using 11 doses of organic fertilizer treatments compared with control treatment has been studied. The organic fertilizer played an important role in elevating the percentage of unsaturated fatty acids, oil yield, which are the essential factors for determining oil quality of sunflower. The separation of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids occurred by using direct HPLC analysis method under the optimum separation conditions using Fast Liquid Chromatographic methods (FLC) applied, short and efficient HPLC (50 mm × 4.6 I.D.), C18DB column with high surface area, 3 μm particle size packing. The analysis results showed that an increase in fertilizer resulted in steady increase in yield and contents of linoleic acid. The concentration and percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and linoleic acid have steady increased with fertilizer treatments (55.6–75.91%), whereas percentage of oleic acid responded negatively with elevated percentage of the fertilizer treatments compared with control treatment, consequently, the concentration and percentage of oleic acid slightly decreased in the range (33–19.06), however, the percentage of saturated SFA was in the range of 2.93–4.85% for palmatic acid and 2.2–5.13% for stearic acid. The results showed that the highest concentration of oil was in T12. The results showed slight increase in specific gravity of oil with variation in organic fertilizing treatments. Oil yield was changed from 23% for control treatment to 43% through organic fertilizer treatments.