Major components in oils obtained from Amazonian palm fruits

Abstract

Native palm trees belong to the Arecaceae family and are among the most useful plant resources in the Amazons. Despite its great diversity and various uses, few species have been study in detail, which makes it necessary to perform more comprehensive studies on the quality and composition of species not yet explored. This study deals with the characterization of the major compounds in the oils obtained from the mesocarp of fruits of the main palm species from the State of Amapa, Brasil, i.e. bacaba ( Oenocarpus bacaba ), buriti ( Mauritia flexuosa ), inaja ( Maximiliana maripa ), pupunha ( Bactris gasipaes ) and tucuma ( Astrocaryum vulgare ). Physicochemical characteristics, fatty acids and triacylglycerol (TAG) contents were analyzed by HPLC and GC. The proximate composition of the fruits was also analyzed. The results relating to acidity, peroxide value and polar compounds indicate good quality of the oils obtained. Oleic acid ranging from 39.2 to 71.6% and palmitic acid ranging from 20.8 to 39.6% were the two major fatty acids in all the samples. The oils from inaja were characterized by the presence of significant amounts of lauric (4.6%) and miristic (10.7%) acids while in bacaba, buriti, pupunha and tucuma, as in most edible vegetable oils, only the fatty acids of 16 and 18 carbon atoms were present. Accordingly, the major TAG species in all the samples were POP, POO and OOO. The mesocarp of the palm fruit had a high content in lipids ranging from 17.0% for pupunha to 38.3% for bacaba, expressed as dry basis.