Evaluation of nuts morphology and composition of fatty acids in certain Iranian Pistacia vera L. (Anacardiaceae) cultivars

Abstract

Fruits of various Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) cultivars are widely used in food industries for its inimitable color, taste and nutrient value. We elevated fruit morphology and kernel fatty acids composition of eleven Iranian cultivars of pistachio. Oils of kernels were extracted using cold press method, and composition of the oil fatty acids in the methyl ester form was detected using gas chromatography (GC). For morphological study, nine qualitative and quantitative traits were evaluated. The quantitative ones widely differed among the studied cultivars, and ANOVA test revealed the significant variations (p = 0.00) for all of them. Moreover, the qualitative traits varied among the cultivars. We characterized 11 fatty acid components representing about 99.56 to 100 % of the total oil composition. The principal fatty acids for all the cultivars were: oleic, linoleic and palmitic acids, while their amounts differed among the cultivars. In this regard, unsaturated fatty acids comprised the major oil part, 87.46 to 88.89 %. Oleic acid (53.11-70.99 %) and palmitic acid (9.09 to 10.55 %) were detected as the unsaturated and saturated fatty acids in all the evaluated cultivars. The quality index of oils were determined according to oleic/ linoleic acids ratio, which highly varied among the cultivars. According to UPGMA tree and PCO plot, we divided the investigated cultivars into four chemotypes, and each of them was characterized by the certain oil composition.

Keywords

• saturated fatty acid
• unsaturated fatty acid
• pistachio
• gas chromatography
• Iran