Abstract
The seed oil of 138 accessions of 14 Acer truncatum (Aceraceae family) populations native to China were analyzed by pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection. The oil content ranged from 17.81% to 36.56% (mean: 28.57%), which mainly consisted of 14 types of fatty acids. Palmitic (4.69%), stearic (2.30%), oleic (25.19%), linoleic (32.97%), linolenic (2.76%), cis-11-eicosenoic (7.90%), erucic (16.49%), and nervonic (5.76%) fatty acids accounted for 98% of total fat. The nervonic acid content ranged from 3.90% to 7.85% among the accessions. Significant variations in oil content and predominating fatty acids were observed among populations. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis detected obvious geographical variation trends among A. truncatum populations which correlate with environmental variations (especially altitude, temperature, and precipitation) and supported the grouping of the populations into three groups according to geographic locations.
Highlights
Plant seeds are an important source of oil, which serves as a staple agricultural food product and an important industrial raw material
It was observed that the fatty acid composition of A. truncatum seed oil (ATO) assumed variation patterns which are characteristic of geographic isolation
The data presented in this study show patterns of variability in oil content and fatty acid composition which correlate with geographic location: northern high altitude populations exhibited higher oil content; populations in the eastern central region exhibited high levels of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA); populations from the southwest region were rich in saturated fatty acid (SFA); populations from the northeast and northwest regions had high Unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) content
Summary
Plant seeds are an important source of oil, which serves as a staple agricultural food product and an important industrial raw material. Plant seed oils are an increasingly important renewable and environmentally safe bioenergy resource. Increasing demand for seed oil has resulted in increasingly prevalent and serious oil shortages. To address this problem, efforts have been focused on the development of woody oil trees, which have recently become a major edible oil source in some western European countries. Woody crop oils with a large share of the edible oil market include coconut, olive, palm, almond, walnut, and tea oils. There are many potentially excellent woody edible oils in nature that have not been exploited, including those coming from maple tree species
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