Acorn (Quercus spp.) as a novel source of oleic acid and tocopherols for livestock and humans: discrimination of selected species from Mediterranean forest

Abstract

The aim of the present work was to characterization and compare acorns from selected spp. from the Mediterranean forest in Spain, namely, Portuguese oak (QF, Lam.), Cork oak (QS, L.), Pyrenean oak (QP, Wild), Kermes oak (QC, L.), Holm oak (QB, L. subsp. ballota [Desf.]). All physicochemical attributes varied significantly between species. Fat contents ranged from 1.30 to 4.70 g 100 g fresh matter. The most abundant fatty acids were oleic (62.44, 56.25, 57.46, 48.02, 65.83%), followed by linoleic (16.42, 20.73, 21.30, 25.38, 14.17%) and palmitic (11.69, 14.27, 12.17, 16.22, 12.28) acids in QF, QS, QP, QC and QB species, respectively. The tocopherol content was high in the range of 31.83-45.25 mg kg, and γ-tocopherol constituted 67-78% of total tocopherols. Only an effect of the location on γ-tocopherol content in QB was observed. The present results show the potential of different species of acorn to be used as agricultural and food resources and that geographical location plays a secondary role.

Screening of phytoconstituents and antibacterial activity of leaves and bark of Quercus leucotrichophora A. Camus from Uttarakhand Himalaya

“…A total of seven components were found to be the common for both extracts of QL. Previous studies on Quercus genus suggested that the species are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, mostly oleic acid and also essential fatty acids such as linoleic (ω-6) and linolenic (ω-3) fatty acids, sesquiterpenes, terpenoids, flavonoids and phenolic acid [20,21,26] and in the present study same pattern of phytoconstituents were observed in the leaves and bark extracts of QL. Differences in quantity and quality of chemical components of any plant extract are highly influenced by several genetic and environmental factors, such as the genetic and seasonal variation, geographical origin, and the part of the plant used for the study, even agronomic conditions, developmental stage, time of collection, extraction method and solvent system [27].…”

Acorn Isotopic Composition: A New Promising Tool for Authenticity Maps of Montado’s High-Value Food Products

“…Reported holm oak weight ranges from 1.2 to 6.5 g [10], lower than the ones determined in QR samples. As for QS acorns weight, mean values of 7.69 g have been reported [28], which also agrees with our results.…”

Effect of oak acorn (<i>Quercus ilex</i>) intake during suckling and fattening of Barbarine lambs on growth, meat quality and fatty acid profile

“…Nutritional treatments are used to increase animal growth and manipulate the FA content improving the nutritional value of meat (Atti and Mahouachi, 2009;Ponnampalam et al, 2016). Oak acorn, due to its high content of C18:1, has an interesting FA profile (Cantos et al, 2003;Akcan et al, 2017) and so is largely used in pig production (Jurado et al, 2007;Pérez-Palacios, 2010). However, available data linking its effects on small ruminant growth and meat quality is very limited (Keddam et al, 2010).…”