Physicochemical Characterization of Opuntia ficus-indica Seed Oil from Morocco

Salma Zine^1*, Said Gharby^2* and Miloud El Hadek¹

¹Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés, Faculté des Sciences, Université Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco.

²Etablissement Autonome de Contrôle et de Coordination des Exportations, Agadir, Morocco.

Corresponding Author: E-mail: s.gharby@yahoo.fr

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1099

ABSTRACT: Oil yield, physicochemical, tricylglecrols, fatty acid composition, sterols, tocopherols and stability oxidative of Opuntia ficus-indica seed oil obtained by cold pressing extraction were determined. Oil yield was between 6 - 7%. Nine triacylglycerols were identified, the major being LLL (24.94%), LLO (21.31%), LLP (15.90%), and OOL (13.76%). The main fatty acids ranked in the following order of abundance: C18:2 (60.8%), C18:1 (21.3%),C16:0 (11.9%), C18:0 3.4%). The quality and composition of some minor constituents of seed oil were determined. Total tocopherol content in seed oil was 94.6 mg/100 g, g-tocopherol (90%) was the main constituent. the sterol composition is similar to that of other vegetable oils, level of sterols making up 90.33 mg/100g seed oil was present. The sterol marker, b-sitosterol, accounted for 75.3% of the total sterol content in the seed oil. This oil presented a moderate content in phospholipids.

KEYWORDS: Opuntia ficus indica; Seed oil; Phytosterol; Fatty acid; Tocopherol; Phospholipids

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