Preliminary characterization of seed oils of Opuntia ficus indica from Chaco (Argentina)

ALEGRE, MARIANA; PÉREZ ZAMORA, CRISTINA; TORRES, CAROLA

Recife

Congreso; 9th International Phytocosmetics and Phytotherapy Congress; 2019

International Society for Phytocosmetic Science

BackgroundOpuntia seed oil is highly valued for its content of unsaturated fatty acids that give it excellent nutritional and cosmetic properties. Currently, marketed oils are of Moroccan origin and they are expensive due to the low extraction performance. The Opuntia species has a metabolism called crassulacean acid metabolism, which allows to produce biomass in arid and dry conditions; due tothese characteristics, it is found in the fields of dry Chaco (Argentina). There is an interest in the region to exploit the species for commercial purposes. Currently, the fruits are used to make jams that are sold throughout the country, and the seeds are a waste. The objective of this work was to obtain seed oil from two varieties of Opuntia ficus-indica fruits (green and red fruits) and perform a preliminary characterization to assess some aspects of their quality.Material and methodsThe extraction was carried out with Soxhlet equipment, with hexane for 7 hours. Then, the extraction yield was calculated. The oils were characterized regarding to relative density, pH, refractive index (Abbe refractometer), lipid profile (GC-FID Agilent 6850) and the color parameters (L*, a*, b*) using a spectrocolorimeter (LICO 500). Finally, the results were compared.Results and discussionSimilar results were obtained with both oils. The extraction yield was 5.62% for the red fruit seeds and 6.42% for the green fruit seeds. Relative density was 0.89 g/ml, the pH value was between 5 and 6, refractive index was 1.74 in both cases. The content of saturated fatty acids was 17.35%, mainly palmitic (12.39-12.60%) and 82.65% of unsaturated fatty acids, being predominant linoleic (62.67-66.30%) and oleic acid (14.47-17.86%). Regarding to the color, both presented a yellowgreenish color, but the green fruits seed oil turned out to be brighter and lighter. Due to ∆E = 2.71, it can be said that the color difference between them is notable.ConclusionsThese results agree with the data published in various works, the high content of linoleic and oleic acids justifies its use in cosmetics. It is necessary to continue working to carry out a more exhaustive characterization of the physical-chemical properties of the extracted oils.