Title:

Comparative analysis of nutritional components of indigenous plant oils of Namibia

Publication Year:
2017
Abstract:

Namibia has a rich biodiversity of plant species of which a great variety is used for food, cosmetics and medicinal applications. Oils from plants such as Citrullus lanatus (Kalahari melon), Schinziophyton rautanenii (Manketti) and Ximenia americana (Blue Sour plum) are produced by local people of Namibia according to age-old traditional methods for the use in food, cosmetics and health. On commercial scale, the Acanthosicyos horridus (!Nara) cold pressed oil is produced and developed into value-added products. A potential new oil of the Moringa ovalifolia, a tree indigenous to Namibia, is under investigation as a potential contributor to the natural products market. In this study, the fatty acids, major sterols and tocopherols compositions of the oils were analyzed and compared. The nutritional analysis revealed that the Manketti oil had the highest amount ofrntotal tocopherol (183.2 mg/100g) and major sterols (stigmasterol: 44.3 mg/100g and β-sitosterol: 586.6 mg/100g). The dominant tocopherols of the oils were γ-tocopherol, except for the Ximenia oil, for which the αtocopherol was the dominant compound. Major fatty acids were determined to be Manketti oil (α-eleostearic acid: 34% and linoleic acid: 32%), Ximenia (oleic acid: 44.1%), Melon (linoleic acid: 57%), !Nara (linoleic acid: 53.1%), and Moringa (oleic acid: 55.2%). The analysis of the selected Namibian indigenous seed oils revealed their use as potential candidates to produce value-added products in the food and cosmetics industry.

Conference name:
31st EFFoST International Conference, 13-16 November 2017
Place:
Sitges, Spain
Item Type:
Report
Language:
en

EIS custom tag descriptions