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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Raleigh, North Carolina » Market Quality and Handling Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #238720
Title: Hexaconsanoic Acid and Other Long Chain Fatty Acids in Peanut Seed Oil

Author
item Dean, Lisa
item Sanders, Timothy

Submitted to: Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/22/2009
Publication Date: 3/26/2009
Citation: Dean, L.L., Sanders, T.H. 2009. Hexaconsanoic Acid and Other Long Chain Fatty Acids in Peanut Seed Oil. Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization. DOI: 10.1017/S1479262109339155.

Interpretive Summary: The peanut germplasm collection consists of almost 8,000 entries. This collection has been reduced to a representative set of samples known as the core of the core or the “mini core” by using such factors as plant appearance and disease resistance. One aspect of the chemical composition of the samples in the mini core is presented in this study. One group of the fatty acids present in any plant lipid is the very long chain fatty acids. That is those chains longer than 22 carbons. This study showed that the oil pressed from peanuts contains these fatty acids and they were quantified in the 108 samples from the germplasm collection that make up the mini core. When the hexacosanoic acid contents were averaged for the global areas where the seeds were originally collected, they were found to cluster according to region, although the range of the values overlapped.

Technical Abstract: The fatty acid composition of peanut seed oil from a range of samples included in the core of the core or the “mini core” of the US peanut germplasm collection was determined using gas chromatography. Oil contents of the seeds ranged from 31.4 % to 47.9 %. Very long chain fatty acids are defined as those having more than 22 carbons in chain length. Although it has been reported in peanuts seed previously, the presence of hexacosanoic acid (C26:0) was quantified in a large variety of samples here for the first time along with docosanoic (C22:0) and tetracosanoic acid (C24:0) to demonstrate the potential of peanut seed as a source of very long chain fatty acids that have been associated with widely varying effects such as the metabolism of the dietary fatty acids and physical properties of the oils themselves. Use of representative samples from the peanut germplasm collection allowed for comparison of very long chain fatty acid content among seeds of different origins and showed although values overlapped, the seeds did cluster according to area of origin.