A Study of the Physical, Chemical, Phytochemical and Nutritional Properties of Wild Silybum marianum L. Seeds Oil to Investigate Its Potential Use to Boost Edible Oil Self-Sufficiency in Egypt

Abstract

Food security is now a threat to Egypt's economy. Egypt relies on large quantities of imports of edible oil. Securing those supplies led Egypt to become one of the top 10 importers of edible oils in the world. This work aimed to investigate the Silybum Marianum seeds (SMS) as a potential novel source of edible oil. Fatty acids composition, physicochemical characteristics, selected bioactive components and nutritional quality of SMS coldpressed oil (SMSO) were examined. The results showed that SMS is a promising source of crude fat (28.04%). USFAs quantitatively accounted for 82.89% of total fatty acids, with linoleic (C18:2) being the most abundant (50.31%), followed by oleic (C18:1) at 31.76%. Unfortunately, only 0.28% represented linolenic (C18:3). The physicochemical characteristics of SMSO were in accordance with Egyptian Standards for vegetable edible oils. SMSO contained a wide range of bioactive components including silymarin 2530.79 mg/100g, αtocopherol 307.84 mg/100g, β-carotene 30.52 mg/100g, total phenolic content 2165.83 mg GAE/100g and flavonoids 837.86 mg QE/100g. SMSO exhibited valuable nutritional quality indicators represented in the low (atherogenic and thrombogenic) indices and the high (PUFAs/SFAs, USFAs/SFAs, and hypocholesterolemic/ hypercholesterolemic) rations, while ω6/ω3 ratio was far from the recommended values. From the nutritional standpoint, SMSO is a strong candidate to serve as a functional ingredient of the human diet, whether used alone or blended with oils that are rich in ω-3 PUFAs to achieve a wide spectrum of nutritional and health benefits. Based on the obtained results, milk thistle should be cultivated extensively as an innovative resource of oil to boost edible oil self-sufficiency in Egypt.

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“…Also, SM comprises a number of flavonoid compounds, including taxifolin, dihydrokaempferol, and quercetin (Stolf et al, 2017). The fatty oil of SM seed contains essential phospholipids that exhibit a significant proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, specifically oleic and linoleic acids (Mahran and Elhassaneen, 2023b).…”