Characterization of Acorn Fruit Oils Extracted from Selected Mediterranean Quercus Species

Abstract

The present study is aimed to identifying the acorn fruit oil composition of three Mediterranean white oak group species, Quercus aegilops (QA), Quercus infectoria (QI), and Quercus calliprinus (QC). Samples were estimated for the oil contents of acorn fruits, oil chemical and physical constants, fatty acid profile, tocopherols, phenolic compounds, and sterols.The oil content, expressed as dry weight, was found to be 3.40-7.51%. The physical and chemical constants included specific gravity 0.912-0.922, refractive index 1.4529-1.4645, specific extinction at 232 nm 2.497-2.536 and at 270 nm 1.495-2.037, iodine value 75.2-87.6, and saponification value 192.6-219.4. The fatty acid compositions were determined by GC as methyl esters. The most abundant fatty acids were oleic (53.3-56.1%), linoleic 21.3-23.4%, palmitic 17.8-18.7%, linolenic 1.5-1.6% and stearic acid 1.02-1.60%. The Tocopherol content was high in the range of 1440-1783 mg kg^-1, γ-tocopherol constituted 84-91% of total tocopherols. Phenolic compounds were in remarkable amounts in all the three species 84-109 mg gallic acid kg^-1 oil. Total sterol contents were between 2040-2480 mg kg^-1 oil, with β-sitosterol being the main component comprising of 77.20-84.61%, followed by ∆⁵-avenasterol (5.8-11.4%), campesterol (3.6-4.5%), and stigmasterol (2.6-3.8). The cholesterol content was relatively high (0.42-0.55%).