Fatty Acid, Tocopherol and Sterol Compositions of Canadian Prairie Fruit Seed Lipids

Abstract

AbstractThe seeds of four prairie fruits—chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), thorny buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea), Woods’ rose (Rosa woodsii) and hawthorn (Crataegus × mordenensis)—from Southern Alberta were investigated. The lipid contents of the seeds were found to be 10.4, 11.5, 3.7 and 3.4%, respectively. The tested seed lipids contained mainly linoleic acid in the range from 27.9 to 65.6% and oleic acid from 19.7 to 61.9%. The thorny buffaloberry and Woods’ rose seed lipids contained 29.2 and 30.8% of linolenic acid, respectively. The contents of palmitic and stearic acids ranged from 3.2 to 5.4% and 1.6 to 2.2%, respectively. The contents of total tocopherols in the chokecherry, thorny buffaloberry, Woods’ rose and hawthorn seed lipids accounted for 595, 897, 2,358 and 2,837 mg/kg, respectively. The main sterols in the lipids were β‐sitosterol, Δ5‐avenasterol, cycloartenol, campesterol, stigmasterol and gramisterol. The results of the present study show that the lipids from the seeds of the investigated prairie fruits could be a good source of valuable essential fatty acids, tocopherols and sterols, thus suggesting their application as functional foods and nutraceuticals.