Fatty Acid and Triglyceride Profiles of the Fruit Extracts of Canarium schweinfurthii

Abstract

The seeds and oil of Canarium schweinfurthii Engl. are believed to have therapeutic properties and healthy for consumption. In Vom Plateau State, the oil is extracted from the fruits and the marc is considered to have no value. This study extracted the oil traditionally from the fruits as done locally and the marc extracted with different solvents to evaluate the nature of phytoconstituents in the oil and marc extracts. The extracts were subjected to LCMS to determine their fatty acid profiles with significant amounts of Saturated, mono unsaturated and poly unsaturated fatty acids detected in the oil and extracts of the marc. NMR analysis was used to isolate and characterize Compound UT- ME02 (Trilinolein), Compound UT- EA02 (Triolein) and Compound UT- PE01 (Trielaidin) from the Methanol, Ethyl acetate and Petroleum ether extracts respectively after Column chromatography over silica gel (60-120 mesh) as the stationary phase was eluted with a mobile phase mixture of n-Hexane; n-Hexane-Ethyl acetate; Ethyl acetate; Ethyl acetate-Methanol and Methanol with gradient increasing polarity. The 1H NMR spectra for UT- ME02, UT-EA02 and UT-PE01 all showed nine signals; signals A - I and the 13C NMR for same extracts all showed recognizable signals for the carbonyl ester of triacylglycerols at different chemical shifts. These assignments of Proton and carbon signals in the 1H NMR and 13C NMR were made from reports of other studies and the results showed that important phytoconstituents were present in both the oil and solvent extracts of the marc such that we can boldly claim that the marc isn’t really useless as perceived in the community. The marc can be valuable in animal feed formulations as a valuable source of lipids.