13
FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSANIZAR TLILI 1,2 *, SERGI MUNNE-BOSCH 3 , NIZAR NASRI 1 , EZZEDDINE SAADAOUI 2 , ABDELHAMID KHALDI 2 and SAÏDA TRIKI 1 1 Laboratoire de Biochimie Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El-Manar Tunis 2092, Tunisia 2 Unité de Recherche Gestion et Valorisation des Ressources Forestières INRGREF BP: 10 Ariana 2080, Tunisia 3 Departament de Biologia Vegetal Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona, Spain Submitted for Publication June 9, 2009 Revised Received and Accepted July 21, 2009 ABSTRACT Capparis spinosa is widely distributed all over the Mediterranean Basin. Fatty acid composition of oils of C. spinosa from seven Tunisian regions was determined. The oil content of the seeds ranged from 23.25 to 33.64% on a dry weight basis. Unsaturated fatty acids accounted for the majority of the fatty acids. Oleic acid with 45.82% was the main fatty acid followed by linoleic acid (25.37%), palmitic acid (15.93%), palmitoleic acid (4.55%) and stearic acid (4.06%). C. spinosa seed oil also contained a high level of tocopherols (ca. 628 mg/100 g). g-Tocopherol was the major homologue (ca. 92%), followed by a-tocopherol (ca. 4%) and d-tocopherol (ca. 2%). Seed oil of C. spinosa contained high amounts of carotenoids (ca. 457 mg/100 g). The contents of b-carotene (as pro-vitamin A) were also very significant (ca. 375 mg/100 g). Results encourage the use of this plant species as a new source of vegetable oil for nutritional, industrial, and pharmaceutical applications. * Corresponding author. TEL: +216-21-22-30-08; FAX: +216-71-88-54-80; EMAIL: nizar.tlili@ fst.rnu.tn Journal of Food Lipids 16 (2009) 452–464. All Rights Reserved. © 2009, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 452

FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

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Page 1: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

jfl_1158 452..464

FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROMSEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

NIZAR TLILI1,2*, SERGI MUNNE-BOSCH3, NIZAR NASRI1,EZZEDDINE SAADAOUI2, ABDELHAMID KHALDI2 and

SAÏDA TRIKI1

1Laboratoire de BiochimieDépartement de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El-Manar

Tunis 2092, Tunisia

2Unité de Recherche Gestion et Valorisation des Ressources ForestièresINRGREF

BP: 10 Ariana 2080, Tunisia

3Departament de Biologia VegetalFacultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona

Barcelona, Spain

Submitted for Publication June 9, 2009Revised Received and Accepted July 21, 2009

ABSTRACT

Capparis spinosa is widely distributed all over the Mediterranean Basin.Fatty acid composition of oils of C. spinosa from seven Tunisian regions wasdetermined. The oil content of the seeds ranged from 23.25 to 33.64% on a dryweight basis. Unsaturated fatty acids accounted for the majority of the fattyacids. Oleic acid with 45.82% was the main fatty acid followed by linoleic acid(25.37%), palmitic acid (15.93%), palmitoleic acid (4.55%) and stearic acid(4.06%). C. spinosa seed oil also contained a high level of tocopherols (ca.628 mg/100 g). g-Tocopherol was the major homologue (ca. 92%), followed bya-tocopherol (ca. 4%) and d-tocopherol (ca. 2%). Seed oil of C. spinosacontained high amounts of carotenoids (ca. 457 mg/100 g). The contents ofb-carotene (as pro-vitamin A) were also very significant (ca. 375 mg/100 g).Results encourage the use of this plant species as a new source of vegetable oilfor nutritional, industrial, and pharmaceutical applications.

* Corresponding author. TEL: +216-21-22-30-08; FAX: +216-71-88-54-80; EMAIL: [email protected]

Journal of Food Lipids 16 (2009) 452–464. All Rights Reserved.© 2009, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.452

Page 2: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The seeds of Capparis spinosa may serve as a new potential source of oil(ca. 27%). It contained mainly unsaturated fatty acids (ca. 77%). Oleic acidwas the major fatty acid (ca. 45%). The level of linoleic and linolenic fattyacids was about 25 and 1%, respectively. Moreover, C. spinosa seed oil is animportant source of tocopherols (as vitamin E), with approximately 628 mg/100 g and also of carotenoids (457 mg/100 g). These compounds have animportant role in the prevention of many diseases and can be used in a numberof personal care products. Seeds of C. spinosa are especially attractive forproducing oil for food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications.

INTRODUCTION

Caper is a perennial shrub of the Mediterranean Basin, and the mostimportant economical species is Capparis spinosa. This species has increasedin economic importance in the Mediterranean region over the last few years(Romeo et al. 2007). In many countries, young shoots, flower buds, fruitsand seeds of C. spinosa are used as nutritional, drug or cosmetic additives(Afsharypuor et al. 1998; Akgul and Ozcan 1999). The fresh aerial parts,including the fruit and the flower buds, are stored in salt and vinegar, or brinedand used as an appetizer with olives, cheese, and nuts or as a complement tomeat, salads, or pasta (Germano et al. 2002; Romeo et al. 2007). Additionally,fruits with small, soft seeds are preferred for the production of pickles.

Plant seeds are important sources of oils for nutritional, industrial, andpharmaceutical applications. Seed oils have attracted much attention becauseof their biological properties and effects. Due to a rapid increase in the worldpopulation, there has been an increase in the demand for vegetable oils fordomestic and industrial uses (Falade et al. 2008). For these reasons, new plantsources of oil, especially from underexploited seeds, have been investigated(Omode et al. 1995; Akanni et al. 2005). Several seed components and par-ticularly minor lipid compounds are often reliable biochemical indicators ofthe species (Mongrand et al. 2001).

To the best of our knowledge, very few studies have been carried out onC. spinosa storage lipids. The little information available is only from Turkey.Akgul and Ozcan (1999) and later Matthaus and Özcan (2005) reported thatthe level of oil in Turkish caper was about 35% on a dry weight basis. The aimof the present work was to evaluate the oil content, the fatty acid composition,and tocopherols and carotenoids content of Tunisian caper. This wild plantcovers a vast geographical area in Tunisia (Saadaoui et al. 2007). This workalso offers some general characteristics of C. spinosa fatty acid composition

453SEED OIL OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

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and antioxidant content from different Tunisian regions. The importance ofthese results is an indication of the potential nutraceutical and economic utilityof caper seeds as new source of unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Plant Material

Sampling was performed from seven Tunisian regions in May 2008:Dahmani (D) Ghar el Melh (GM), Ksar Hadada (KH), Tatouine (T), Mateur(M), Chwigui (CH) and Sidi Thabet (ST) (Table 1). From each region, seedswere collected from 8 to 13 plants, mixed and then a representative sample wastaken for further analysis. Seed oil was immediately extracted in the laboratoryupon arrival as indicated below. Samples were analyzed in triplicate.

Oil Content

The oil content was determined according to AOCS (1989) methodCe-66:1989 and ISO (1999) method 659:1998. About 5 g of the seeds wereground in a mortar until dough and extracted with petroleum ether in a Soxhletapparatus for 6 h. The solvent was concentrated using a rotary evaporator,under reduced pressure at 45C. The oil was dried by using a stream of nitrogenand stored at -20C until use.

TABLE 1.LOCATION, OIL CONTENT AND TOTAL UNSAPONIFIABLES OF HARVESTED CAPPARIS

SPINOSA SEEDS†

Code Name Location Latitude Longitude Oil content(%)

Totalunsaponifiables(%)

D Dahmani North 35° 57′ N 8° 48′ E 28.87 1.99GM Ghar el Melh North 37° 10′ N 10° 11′ E 30.87 2.05KH Ksar Hadada South 33° 06′ N 10° 19′ E 23.25 2.53T Tatouine South 32° 55′ N 10° 26′ E 24.73 1.96M Mateur North 37° 02′ N 9° 40′ E 30.93 2.71*CH Chouigui North 36° 53′ N 9° 47′ E 33.64* 1.67ST Sidi Thabet North 36° 55′ N 10° 03′ E 33.3 2Mean � SD 27.76 � 5.33 2.13 � 0.34

* Values are significantly higher than the mean at P � 0.05.† Values are mean of three repetitions.D, Dahmani; M, Mateur; CH, Chouigui; ST, Sidi Thabet; GM, Ghar el Melh; KH, Ksar Hdada;T, Tataouine.

454 N. TLILI ET AL.

Page 4: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

Saponification of the Lipids

To separate the unsaponifiable fraction, oil from C. spinosa seeds wastreated with a potassium hydroxide solution to transform the fatty acyl estersinto potassium salts that are soluble in water. Total extracted lipids weretreated with 50 mL of 2 M KOH-ethanol solution, and the mixture wasrefluxed, with constant stirring, for 1 h. Then, 50 mL of water was added. Theunsaponifiable fraction was extracted with 3 ¥ 40 mL of diethyl ether. Theorganic extract was separated and washed with 3 ¥ 40 mL of distilled waterand then dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, filtered and concentrated usinga rotary evaporator under reduced pressure at 60C.

Determination of Fatty Acid Composition

The fatty acid composition of the oil was determined by gas chromatog-raphy as fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) according to the method describedby Baccouri et al. (2007). FAMEs were prepared by vigorous shaking of asolution of each C. spinosa sample in n-hexane (0.2 g in 3 mL) with 0.4 mL2 M methanolic potassium hydroxide solution. Chromatographic analysiswas performed on a Hewlett Packard 4890D gas chromatograph equippedwith a flame ionization detector (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA), usinga fused-silica capillary column (HP-Innowax polyethylene glycol,30 m ¥ 0.25 mm i.d. ¥ 0.25 mm film thickness, Supelco Inc., Bellefonte, PA).The injector and detector temperatures were maintained at 240 and 260C,respectively; the oven temperature was 210C. Nitrogen was employed as thecarrier gas with a flow rate of 1 mL/min according to the method of EuropeanRegulation 2568/91 (EEC 1991). Fatty acids were identified by comparingtheir retention times with those of authentic standards.

Determination of Tocopherols

For determination of tocopherols, a solution of 100 mg of oil was vigor-ously mixed in 3 mL of hexane, centrifuged and injected into the HPLC.Tocopherols were separated using a normal phase HPLC system (LiChrosorb5 Si60A 4.6 ¥ 250 mm silica column, Column Engineering; HP 1100 seriesHPLC system, Agilent Technologies) and a 10-min isocratic method using17% (v/v) diisopropyl ether in hexane at 42C at 2 mL/min. Tocopherols werequantified through their absorbance at 292 nm (Diode array detector, HP1100Series, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA).

Determination of Carotenoids

For determination of carotenoids, 100 mg of oil was vigorously mixed in3 mL of acetone, centrifuged and injected into the HPLC. Carotenoids were

455SEED OIL OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

Page 5: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

separated on a Dupont non-endcapped Zorbax ODS-5 mm column(250 ¥ 4.6 mm, 20% C, Scharlau, Barcelona, Spain) at 30C at a flow rate of1 mL/min. The solvents consisted of (1) acetonitrile/methanol (85: 15, v/v);and (2) methanol/ethyl acetate (68: 32, v/v). The gradient used was 0–14 min100% A, 14–16 min decreasing to 0% A, 16–28 min 0% A, 28–30 min increas-ing to 100% A, and 30–38 min 100% A. Detection was carried out at 445 nm(Diode array detector, HP1100 Series, Agilent Technologies).

Statistical Analysis

The experimental data were analyzed using the analysis of variance andthe Statistical Analysis System (XLSTAT 2008). Differences at P � 0.05 wereconsidered statistically significant by Duncan’s new multiple range test. Allvalues were expressed as means � standard deviation of at least triplicaterepetitions.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Seed Oil Content

Contents of seed oil and the fatty acid composition were measured indifferent C. spinosa populations from different geographic regions of Tunisia.Total seed oil content of Tunisian caper is shown in Table 1. Tunisian C.spinosa seeds are found to be rich in lipids with an oil content of seeds fromdifferent locations in Tunisia from 23.25 � 1.59% (KH) to 33.64 � 2.6%(CH), on a dry weight basis, with an average of 27.76 � 5.33% (Table 1).These results are in agreement with those reported by Matthaus and Özcan(2005), who reported an oil content of 27.3–37.6%. These results encouragethe use of this plant species as a new source of vegetable oil for both food andindustrial applications.

Unsaponifiable Oil Content

Table 1 clearly shows that there were almost no differences in the unsa-ponifiable matter of the seven Tunisian samples studied. Values were between1.67 and 2.71% with an overall mean of 2.13%. These values are in the higherrange of those found for oleaginous species, such as sunflower (0.5–1.5%),soybean (0.5–1.6%) or rapeseed (0.7–1.8%) (Karleskind and Wolf 1996).

Fatty Acid Composition

Figure 1 shows a typical fatty acid profile of C. spinosa oil. Twelve fattyacids were identified (Table 2). Extracted oils from all populations were

456 N. TLILI ET AL.

Page 6: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

mainly unsaturated (77.32%). Oleic acid was the main fatty acid (45.82%)ranging from 44.5% in T population to 48.14% in CH population followed bylinoleic acid (25.37%), ranging from 21.49% in GM to 31.91% in M popula-tion (see Table 1).

Our results are in agreement with those of Akgul and Ozcan (1999), whoreported that oleic acid was the major fatty acid (49.87%), whereas Matthausand Özcan (2005) suggested that linoleic acid (31.42%) was the major fattyacid. These differences might be related to different geographic and climaticconditions or may also reflect genetic variability. Indeed, previous studies haveshown that these compounds can be affected by location (Cherry et al. 1985;Lajara et al. 1990; Ayerza 1995). In addition, another study (Daulatabad et al.1991) reported that the major fatty acid was linoleic acid with 30.5%, whereasoleic acid represented 9.8% in seed oil from C. zeylanica.

FIG. 1. TYPICAL CHROMATOGRAM OF FATTY ACIDS OF SEED OIL FROM CAPPARISSPINOSA (CODE D, TABLE 1)

Analysis was performed on HP 4890D, gas chromatography equipped with a FID, using afused-silica capillary column (30 m ¥ 0.25 mm i.d. ¥ 0.25 mm). Peaks: S, standard; 1, myristic acid

C14:0; 2, palmitic acid C16:0; 3, C16:1 palmitoleic acid cis; 4, C16:1 palmitoleic acid trans;5, stearic acid C18:0; 6, oleic acid C18:1; 7, linoleic acid C18:2; 8, linolenic acid C18:3;

9, eicosanoic acid C20:0; 10, eicoseinoic acid C20:1; 11, behenic acid C22:0;12, lignoceric acid C24:0.

457SEED OIL OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

Page 7: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

TAB

LE

2.T

UN

ISIA

NC

AP

PAR

ISSP

INO

SASE

ED

FAT

TY

AC

IDC

OM

POSI

TIO

N(%

ona

dry

wei

ght

basi

s)†

Fatty

acid

Popu

latio

nM

ean

�SD

(n=

7)D

GM

KH

TC

HST

M

C14

:0

Myr

istic

0.65

0.83

0.38

0.68

1.18

1.05

0.29

0.72

�0.

33C

16:

0Pa

lmiti

c16

.28

17.9

5*17

.71*

16.7

614

.01

15.2

113

.55

15.9

3�

1.73

C16

:1

CIS

Cis

9-Pa

lmito

leic

4.34

3.96

4.88

6.23

*3.

444.

824.

224.

55�

0.89

C16

:1

TR

AN

ST

rans

9-Pa

lmito

leic

0.46

0.32

0.5

0.63

*0.

390.

310.

460.

44�

0.11

C18

:0

Stea

ric

4.88

3.95

5.62

*5.

34*

2.89

3.06

2.70

4.06

�1.

22C

18:

1D9

Ole

ic44

.647

.98*

45.0

844

.51

48.1

4*45

.79

44.6

245

.82

�1.

60C

18:

2D9/

12L

inol

eic

24.9

821

.49

22.6

423

.05

27.0

426

.49

31.9

1*25

.37

�3.

53C

18:

3D9/

12/1

5L

inol

enic

1.06

1.09

0.80

1.32

1.51

*1.

300.

461.

08�

0.35

C20

:0

Eic

osan

oic

0.97

0.94

0.99

0.92

0.55

0.54

0.78

0.81

�0.

20C

20:

1D11

Eic

osei

noic

0.17

tr0.

12tr

0.21

*tr

tr0.

07�

0.09

C22

:0

Beh

enic

1.2

1.44

*1.

000.

560.

461.

261.

010.

99�

0.36

C24

:0

Lig

noce

ric

0.39

*0.

090.

34tr

0.19

0.33

tr0.

19�

0.16

SSF

A24

.38

25.1

626

.05

24.2

619

.27

21.3

018

.33

22.6

8�

3.04

SM

UFA

49.5

852

.26

50.5

251

.37

52.1

850

.91

49.3

050

.87

�1.

17S

PUFA

26.0

522

.58

23.4

524

.37

28.5

527

.79

32.3

7*26

.45

�3.

41S

UFA

75.6

274

.84

73.9

675

.74

80.7

378

.70

81.6

777

.32

�3.

04

*V

alue

sar

esi

gnifi

cant

lyhi

gher

than

the

mea

nat

P�

0.05

.†

Val

ues

are

mea

nof

thre

ere

petit

ions

.D

,Dah

man

i;M

,Mat

eur;

CH

,Cho

uigu

i;ST

,Sid

iT

habe

t;G

M,G

har

elM

elh;

KH

,Ksa

rH

dada

;T,

Tata

ouin

e;tr

,tra

ces.

458 N. TLILI ET AL.

Page 8: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

C. spinosa seed oils contain more than 70% of unsaturated fatty acids(Table 2). These unsaturated oils confer some important dietary and indus-trial properties to C. spinosa seeds. It is known that unsaturated fatty acidscan influence some physical properties of the cellular membranes such asfluidity and permeability (Ehringera et al. 1991). Moreover these compoundsstimulate transcription of the gene encoding for the LDL-cholesterol recep-tor (Sorci et al. 1989). C. spinosa contained about 45% oleic acid. Thebenefits of polyunsaturated fatty acids in cardiovascular diseases, atheroscle-rosis, autoimmune disorders, diabetes and other diseases have been reported(Reiffel and McDonald 2006). Linoleic acid (as w-6 fatty acid) has benefi-cial properties for skin, and for this purpose it is used by the personal careproducts industry (Letawe et al. 1998; Darmstadt et al. 2002). It can betransformed by the organism to a series of long-chain fatty acids, precursorsof eicosanoids, a family of compounds with 20 carbons, including leucot-riens and prostaglandins which have an important role at the vessel level andfor blood coagulation. In addition, linolenic acid (as w-3 fatty acid) hasimportance in the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, andin the prevention of cancer (Simopoulos 1999). The richness of C. spinosaseed oil with w-6 fatty acids (more than 20%) and w-3 fatty acids(1%), essential fatty acids, confers to this species dietary and industrialimportance.

Tocopherol Contents

Results in Table 3 show that seed oil of C. spinosa contained highamounts of tocopherols ranging from 545.1 (D) to 859 mg/100 g DW (CH)with an average of 628.6 � 113 mg/100 g DW. These results are in agreementwith those of Matthaus and Özcan (2005), who reported that total tocopherolsfrom seed oil of Turkish C. spinosa were between 249.2 and 1985.4 mg/100 g.This difference between samples from different locations is in agreement withthose of Lavedrine et al. (1997), who reported that these compounds areaffected by location.

In agreement with Abbassi et al. (2007), who reported that g-tocopherolwas more abundant in reproductive structures of the plant, results showed thatthe predominant homologue was g-tocopherol at more than 88.8% (ca.581 mg/100 g). Alpha-tocopherol ranged from 10.9 (ST) to 39.7 mg/100 g (T)with an average of 29.09 � 10.77 mg/100 g, while d-tocopherol rangedbetween 10.4 (ST) and 24.5 mg/100 g (GM) with an average of18.28 � 5.71 mg/100 g. Matthaus and Özcan (2005) reported that g-tocopherol was followed by d-tocopherol in Turkish caper, but these differ-ences may be related to geographic conditions as cited by Lavedrine et al.(1997). The high amounts of tocopherols could be interesting for the

459SEED OIL OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

Page 9: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

TAB

LE

3.C

ON

TE

NT

OF

TO

CO

PHE

RO

LS

(mg/

100

gD

W)

AN

DC

AR

OT

EN

OID

S(m

g/10

0g

DW

)O

FSE

ED

SO

FC

AP

PAR

ISSP

INO

SAFR

OM

DIF

FER

EN

TL

OC

AT

ION

SIN

TU

NIS

IA†

Sam

ples

Toco

pher

ols

Car

oten

oids

gd

aTo

tal

toc

b-ca

rote

neL

utei

nTo

tal

caro

t

Con

tent

Perc

ent

Con

tent

Perc

ent

Con

tent

Perc

ent

D43

4.4

90.7

12.9

2.4

37.7

6.9

545.

126

7.8

20.7

288.

5G

M56

4.2

92.4

24.5

4.0

223.

661

0.7

284.

911

.029

5.9

KH

520.

698

.723

.13.

936

.66.

358

0.4

158.

41.

816

0.1

T49

9.8

88.8

23.1

4.1

39.7

7.1

562.

627

9.3

34.8

314.

1C

H81

0.4*

94.3

13.7

1.6

34.9

4.1

859.

013

25.0

*44

5.9*

1770

.9*

ST66

5.3

96.9

10.4

1.5

10.9

1.6

686.

6*16

3.3

43.7

207.

0M

519.

992

.520

.33.

622

3.9

562.

214

7.3

17.6

164.

9M

ean

�SD

581.

3�

117

92.5

18.3

�5.

72.

829

.1�

10.8

4.6

628.

6�

113

375.

1�

406.

482

.2�

153.

545

7.3

�55

7.1

*V

alue

sar

esi

gnifi

cant

lyhi

gher

than

the

mea

nat

P�

0.05

.†

Val

ues

are

mea

nsof

thre

ere

petit

ions

.D

,Dah

man

i;M

,Mat

eur;

CH

,Cho

uigu

i;ST

,Sid

iT

habe

t;G

M,G

har

elM

elh;

KH

,Ksa

rH

dada

;T,

Tata

ouin

e.

460 N. TLILI ET AL.

Page 10: FATTY ACIDS, TOCOPHEROLS AND CAROTENOIDS FROM SEEDS OF TUNISIAN CAPER “CAPPARIS SPINOSA”

stabilization of fats and oils against oxidative deterioration (Ivanov andAitzetmuller 1995). Moreover, the richness in tocopherols (as vitamin E)makes seed oil of C. spinosa a potential natural source for the production ofthese compounds for nutritional and medicinal uses.

Carotenoid Contents

As shown in Table 3, the content of total carotenoids of seed oil of C.spinosa ranged from 160.1 (KH) to 1770.9 mg/100 g (CH) with an average of457.3 mg/100 g. Results showed that sample CH was characterized by muchhigher amounts of b-carotene and lutein (1325.02 and 445.88 mg/100 g,respectively). Apart from this sample the characteristic level of b-carotene andlutein was relatively constant (between 147.34 (M) and 284.98 (GM), andfrom 1.78 (KH) to 34.84 mg/100 g (T), for b-carotene and lutein, respectively).This difference between samples could be related to location, as cited byAssunção and Mercadante (2003). These results demonstrate that seeds of C.spinosa contained significant concentrations of carotenoids, with b-carotene(as pro-vitamin A) being more abundant than lutein. Carotenoids have beenrecognized for their important role in human health and disease prevention.The low carotenoid content of many staple foods can exacerbate dietarydeficiencies (Howitt and Pogson 2006). The World Health Organisation hasestimated that more than 100 million children are vitamin A-deficient, whichis a serious public health problem in at least 26 countries, including highlypopulated areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and that improved nutri-tion could prevent 1 million to 2 million deaths annually among children withvitamin A deficiency (Ye et al. 2000; Howitt and Pogson 2006). The highlevels of b-carotene and lutein content found in seeds of C. spinosa make it agood natural source of carotenoids, as compared with other species like wheat(10-21 and 82-114 mg/100 g, b-carotene and lutein, respectively) (Mooreet al. 2005).

It is concluded that seed oil obtained from C. spinosa (ca. 27%) couldserve as an alternative source of edible oil containing mainly unsaturatedfatty acids (ca. 77%) with dietary and industrial importance. Oleic acid wasthe major fatty acid (ca. 45%). The level of linoleic and linolenic fatty acidswas approximately 25 and 1%, respectively. Moreover, C. spinosa containeda high level of tocopherols (more than 545 mg/100 g) with g-tocopherol asthe major isoform (ca. 581 mg/100 g). High levels of b-carotene (ca. 375 mg/100 g) and appreciable levels of lutein (ca. 82 mg/100 g) were also detected.These compounds play an important role in the prevention of many diseasesand can be used in many personal care products. Seeds of C. spinosa areespecially attractive to produce oil for food, cosmetic and pharmaceuticalindustries.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the INRGREF for help in collecting the samples. We are verygrateful to Dr. Mokhtar Zarrouk from Laboratoire Caractérisation et Qualité del’Huile d’Olive, Centre de Biotechnologie de Borj-Cedria, B.P. 901-2050,Hammam-Lif, Tunisia. We also thank the Serveis Cientifico-Tècnics (Univer-sity of Barcelona) for technical assistance. This research was supported by theAECI (project no. A/016255/08).

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