Résumé:
The main focus of the present work is the analytical
study of the fatty acid, triglyceride (TAG) and tocopherol
composition of oil extracts from the fruit of
Algerian tree Argania spinosa. The four dominant fatty
acids (FA) found in the oil are: oleic C18:1 (52.86%),
linoleic C18:2 (25.0%), palmitic C16:0 (14.65%) and
stearic C18:0 (7.06%). The distribution of FA between the
sn-2 and sn-1,3 positions of TAG from the oil was also
determined. Unsaturated FA showed a preference for the
internal position, as generally found in vegetable oils. The
TAG composition was calculated using the lipase hydrolysis.
The oil was found to contain trisaturated (0.47%),
disaturated (9.3%), monosaturated (43.95%) and triunsaturated
(45.20%) FA. Flash chromatography with solvent
of increasing polarity yielded 83.42% neutral lipids,
1.56% glycolipids and 2.09% phospholipids. The oil was
characterised by a relatively high amount of tocopherols (1027.8 mg/kg). The (γ+β)-tocopherols were the major
isomers, with the rest being α- and δ-tocopherols.
