Triacylglycerol composition of oil from Pistacia atlantica fruit growing in Algeria

Abstract

The distribution of FA between the sn-2 and sn-1,3positions of TAG from Pistacia atlanticafruit oil of Algeria hasbeen determined. Unsaturated FA showed a preference for theinternal position. Linoleic and oleic acids occurred predomi-nantly in the sn-2 position with lesser amounts evenly distributedbetween the sn-1 and sn-3 positions, as generally found in veg-etable oils. The oil was found to contain TAG that were trisatu-rated (0.93%), disaturated (15.06%), monosaturated (44.64%),and triunsaturated (38.10%). The distribution of the TAG calcu-lated using the lipase hydrolysis technique is slightly differentfrom that determined with HPLC. This is particularly true for tri-oleoyl and trilinoleoylglycerols. In contrast, the agreement be-tween theory and experiment is good for TAG containing twopalmitoyl and one oleoyl, one oleoyl and two linoleoyl, and onepalmitoyl and two oleoyl chains.Paper no. J10979 in JAOCS 82, 93–96 (February 2005).