Phytochemical and chemotaxonomic studies on seeds of Cactaceae, sub-family Cereoideae grown in Argentina

Abstract

Oils, proteins, minerals and physical characteristics of 11 samples of Cactaceae seeds were studied. A numerical analysis was performed using the following parameters: weight and size of seeds, oil and protein percentage and fatty acid composition of the oil. From a phenetic analysis we concluded that the five genera studied can be distributed into two groups: Trichocereus, Gymnocalycium, Stetsonia, Cereus and Harrisia respectively.