Chemical Characterization of Oils and Fats from Amazonian Fruits by ¹H NMR

Abstract

Native plants from the Brazilian Amazon Biome are rich in nutrients, oils and fats and, therefore, represent a very important regional food resource. There is a global interest in the nutritional potential of tropical fruits, the potential of Amazonian fruits as source of essential fatty acids is still under exploited, since their compositionis still understudied. 1H Magnetic Resonance Nuclear (1H NMR) is a robust spectroscopic tool to profile fattyacids components in oils. The objectives of this work were to use 1H NMR to determine the fatty acids profile and the physicochemical properties of crude oils and fats obtained from fruits of Brazilian Amazon: açaí, ata- brava, bacaba, buriti, buritirana, yellow murici, red murici, piaçaba braba, tucumanzinho, pupunha red and yellow varieties. Oils were obtained by Soxhlet extraction using hexane as a solvent. After solvent removal byrotoevaporation, the resulting oils and fats were analyzed by 1H NMR spectroscopy. Unsaturated fatty acidsoleic (?9), linoleic (?6) and linolenic (?3) acids were quantified in the oils and their physicochemical properties were determined. It was observed that the oils have predominately ?9 fatty acids, followed by ?6 and ?3 representatives. The physicochemical properties confirmed edibility and good quality of oils and fats present in the aforementioned Amazonian fruits.