Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Crop Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #236043
Title: Biochemical composition and immunological comparison of select pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] cultivars

Author
item VENKATACHALAM, MAHESH - FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
item KSHIRSAGAR, HARSHAL - FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
item SEERAM, NAVINDRA - UCLA HEALTH SCIENCES
item HEBER, DAVID - UCLA HEALTH SCIENCES
item Thompson, Tommy
item ROUX, KENNETH - FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
item SATHE, SHRIDHAR - FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2007
Publication Date: 11/1/2007
Citation: Venkatachalam, M., Kshirsagar, H.H., Seeram, N.P., Heber, D., Thompson, T.E., Roux, K.H., Sathe, S.K. 2007. Biochemical composition and immunological comparison of select pecan [Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch] cultivars. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 55:9899-9907.

Interpretive Summary: Pecan is an extremely high quality food since it is high in desirable fatty acids and protein. This paper defines fatty acid levels and other nutritional components for pecan. Growing location significantly influenced pecan biochemical composition. Pecan lipid content was negatively correlated with protein and total sugar. Immunological experiments revealed a common pattern for subunit polypeptide profiles, with minor differences, among all the tested samples. The 'Desirable' cultivar was used as the reference standard. This paper further documents the chemical composition of pecan, as well as immunological reactions to many of the proteins in pecan.

Technical Abstract: On an edible portion basis, pecan moisture, protein, lipid, total soluble sugars and ash contents ranged from 2.1 to 6.4%, 6.0 to 11.3%, 65.9 to 78.0%, 3.3 to 5.3% and 1.2 to 1.8%; respectively. With the exception of a high tannin (2.7%) native Texas cultivar, pecan tannin content was in a narrow range (0.6 - 1.85%). Fatty acid composition analysis indicated that unsaturated fatty acids (>90%) dominated pecan lipid composition with oleic (52.52-74.09%) and linoleic (17.69-37.52%) acids as the predominant unsaturated fatty acids. Growing location significantly influenced pecan biochemical composition. Pecan lipid content was negatively correlated with protein (r = - 0.663) and total sugar (r = - 0.625). SDS-PAGE and rabbit pAb-based immunoblotting experiments revealed a common pattern for subunit polypeptide profiles as well as their anti-pAb reactivity, with minor differences, among all the tested samples. All tested cultivars registered similar reactivity when their protein extracts (each at 1 mg/ml) were assessed for immunoreactivity using inhibition ELISAs (mean ± standard deviation = 0.89 ± 0.20; n = 27) and the USDA “Desirable” cultivar as the reference standard.