On the seed oils from M. Japonica, C. loureirii and L. glouca

Abstract

The seed oils from Machilus japonica (Hosobatabu), Cinnamomum loureirii (Nikkei) and Litsea glouca (Shirodamo) were examined. The analyses included physical and chemical characteristics, the fatty acid compositions by gas liquid chromatography (GLC) of methyl esters, the sterol compositions by GLC of acetates. Their results were similar to the seed oils from another Lauraceae with the exception of a low content of seed oil (5.7% for M. japonica). The major saturated fatty acid was dodecanoic acid for M. japonica, C. loureirii and L. glouca and the major unsaturated fatty acid was 9octadecenoic acid for M. japonica and 1,. glouca. Sitosterol was found as a high content in the sterol of three sarnples (87.7% for L. glouca, 70.3% for C. loureirii and 64.7% for M. japonica)