Seed and Fruit Fatty Acid Compositions of Crambe orientalis and Crambe tataria Oils Collected from Three Different Provinces in Turkey

Abstract

Crambe is an annual or perennial plant belonging to the Brassicaceae family. The interest in Crambe is mainly due to its unique fatty acid profile, low input management, and broad adaptability to the environment. Thus, Crambe seed and fruit fatty acids were investigated by GC / MS in order to examine the chemical variability which correlates with the environmental variability. In the study, Crambe orientalis var. orientalis and Crambe tataria var. tataria were used and they were collected from the different areas of three provinces of Türkiye. Fifteen compounds were found, representing 84.6-100% of the total seed and fruit oils. The major components in both species were erucic acid (24.7-44.7%), gondoic acid (19.0-28.3%), oleic acid (14.9-28.5%), and linoleic acid (8.1-17.6%). As a consequence, it is needed to increase the production of erucic acid (C22:1) and gondoic acid (C20:1) in Crambe by using wild populations via plant breeding. These two promising fatty acids may be an alternative to meet industrial fatty acid market demand in a more environmentally friendly way compared to using fatty acids from fossil oil.