Fatty Acid Composition of Oils derived from Nuts

Abstract

The “nuts” in this paper is not necessarily strictly classified botanically but includes the nuts as ordinarily used, and distinguished from the “seeds” and “fruits.” The fatty acid compositions of oils obtained from various familiar nuts, seeds and fruits by means of gas-liquid chromatography were comparatively investigated. In general, major components of the nut oil were oleic, linolic and palmitic acids. The ratio of oleic to linolric acid content of any nut oil was higher than that of seed oils.
Further it has been observed that pine seed oil contains an unidentified fatty acid in amounts of about 15% or more. The mass spectrometrical work to date has identified the acid to an isomer of linolenic acid, γ-linolenic acid (6, 9, 12-octadecatrienoic acid).