RESEARCH ON THE COMPOSITION IN FATTY ACIDS OF THE Amaranthus Sp. SEEDS

Abstract

The research on the varieties of the A maranthus seeds cultivated in the eco-climatic condit!ons of Romania, revealed a content of fat substances between 6 and 9 percent from mass of these seeds. Gas-chromatographic analysis established that the extracted lipids have a high content (about 75%), approximately constant in unsaturated fatty acids, for all the Hpecia and varieties investigated. Among these, cutstanding are linoleic acid (39 -55%) and oleic acid (18 - 34%), their concentrations significantly varying from a variety to the other. The saturated acids, especially palmitic and stearic acids, are in less quantities, representing only 19% and 4% respectively from the total of the fatty acids. On the basis of the compositional studies, there was supposed the existance of a correllation between the content of the linoleic, respectively oleic acids of the seeds and the pigmentation characteristics of the Amaranths species.