Study of the Fatty Acid Diversity of Sesame (Sesamum IndicumL.) Germplasm from Niger by Gas Chromatography (GC)

• Published in: IOSR journal of biotechnology and biochemistry Vol. 5; no. 5; pp. 31 - 38
• Main Authors: Zangui, H, Amoukou, A I, Miquel, M, Sadou, H, Robert, T, Takvorian, N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dr. Kamaljit I. Lakhtaria 2019
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Botanics; Chemical Sciences; Life Sciences; Vegetal Biology; Sesamum indicum L; Nigerien sesame germplasm; fatty acids; gas chromatography; Diversity
• ISSN: 2455-264X; 2455-264X
• DOI: 10.9790/264X-0505013138

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an oleaginous plant that has been described as the "queen of oilseeds" because of the quality of its oil. It is a major oilseed plant rich in unsaturated fatty acids, proteins and natural antioxidants. Seventy accessions of sesame (Sesamum indicum) were analysed to determine the fatty acid composition of their seeds by gas chromatography. Oleic (C18: 1-n-9) and linoleic (C28: 2n-6) acids are the two major fatty acids in sesame oil; they represent about 82.3% of the total fatty acids. The oleic acid content is between 38.4 and 47.3% with an average of 42.5% and that of linoleic acid between 35.9 and 44.3% with an average of 40.7%. The palmitic (C16: 0) and stearic (C18: 0) acids come in second place with average contents of 9.5 and 5.9% respectively. Palmitoleic (C16: 1n-7), α-linolenic (C18: 3n-3), arachidic (C20: 0), eicosenoic (C20: 1n-9) and behenic (20: 0) acids were also detected but with contents generally less than 0.5%. The levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) range from 36.2% to 44.7%, which shows a significant variation of PUFAs in Germplasm. The use oleic desaturation (ODR) ratio and linoleic ratio (RL) to estimate the efficiency of the desaturation pathways shows a high degree of oleic desaturation (ODR = 0.5), whereas the linoleic desaturation ratio is very low (LDR = 0.01), which would explain the high levels of oleic acid and linoleic acid of Germplasm. The results of this study provided useful background information on Germplasm and also identified some accessions rich in oleic and linoleic acid that can be used to develop cultivars with desirable compositions of these fatty acids.