Potato chips fried in palm oil, sunflower oil, and high-oleic sunflower oil were studied for the content of different phytosterol oxides during 0 to 25 weeks of storage in the dark. Oxidation products of sitosterol (24α-ethyl-5-cholesten-3β-ol) and campesterol (24α-methyl-5-cholesten-3β-ol) were synthesized to help identify the phytosterol oxides. The oxides of phytosterols were analyzed by preparative thin-layer chromatography, solid-phase extraction, capillary column gas chromatography (GC), and GC-mass spectrometry. Epimers of 7-hydroxysitosterol and 7-hydroxycampesterol; 7-ketositosterol and 7-ketocampesterol; epimers of 5,6-epoxy-sitosterol and 5,6-epoxy-campesterol; 24α-ethylcholestane-3β,5,6β-triol (dihydroxysitosterol) and 24α-methylcholestane-3β,5,6β-triol (dihydroxycampesterol) were detected and quantitated in the samples of chips fried in different vegetable oils. Potato chips fried in palm oil had the lowest level of total sterol oxides, ranging from 5 to ca. 9 ppm in the lipids from time 0 to 25 wk of storage. The level of total sterol oxides in chip samples fried in sunflower oil ranged from 46 to 47 ppm, and the lipids in samples fried in high-oleic sunflower oil ranged from 35 to 58 ppm from 0 time to 25 wk of storage. During 25 wk of storage no considerable increase in sterol oxides was observed in the samples of chips fried in palm oil and sunflower oil. The chip samples fried in high-oleic sunflower oil had slightly higher levels of sterol oxides after 10 and 25 weeks of storage. In addition to the levels of individual sterol oxides, a new method for enrichment of phytosterol oxides from the unsaponifiables and full-scan mass spectra of various oxidation products of sitosterol and campesterol are reported in this paper. JAOCS 74, 647-657 (1997).

Niger seed samples were collected from different regions in Ethiopia for determination of oil content, and of fatty acid, tocopherol and sterol composition in the seed oil by gas‐liquid chromatography and high‐performance liquid chromatography methods. There was a large variation in oil content, ranging from 29 to 39%. More than 70% of the fatty acids was linoleic acid (18∶2) in all samples analyzed. The other predominant fatty acids were palmitic (16∶0), stearic (18∶0) and oleic (19∶1) at a range of 6 to 11% each. Total polar lipids recovered after preparative thin‐layer chromatography comprised a small fraction of the total lipids. They had higher 16∶0 and lower 18∶2 contents than the triacylglycerols.α‐Tocopherol was the predominant tocopherol in all samples, 94–96% of the total amounting to 630–800 μg/g oil. More than 40% of the total sterols wasβ‐sitosterol,ca. 2000μg/g oil. The other major sterols were campesterol and stigmasterol, ranging from 11 to 14%. The Δ5‐ and Δ7‐avenasterols were in the range of 4 to 7%. From the samples studied, no conclusion could be drawn regarding the influence of altitude or location on oil content, tocopherol and/or sterol contents. The results of the present study on niger seed oil are discussed in comparison with known data for common oils from Compositae,viz, safflower and sunflower.

No abstract

Microsomes prepared from developing safflower seeds rapidly desaturated added [14C] These data are contradictory to the previously assumed pathway for linoleic acid biosynthesis in developing safflower seeds, claiming oleoyl-CoA as the direct substrate and linoleoyl-CoA as the primary product. However, our data corroborate published results on Chlorella, Candida, Torulopsis and on developing pea leaves, which strongly suggest that oleoyl-CoA is first incorporated into phosphatidylcholine and then desaturated to linoleoyl-phosphatidylcholine.