Susceptibility of lipids from different flax cultivars to peroxidation and its lowering by added antioxidants (original) (raw)
Consumption of flax (Linum usitatissimum) seeds is beneficial for human health. Flax seeds, containing about 40% of oil, are the richest (among crop plants) source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) essential in the human diet. PUFA are highly susceptible to oxidation. Thus only certain cultivars (e.g. Linola) with low linolenic acid content are suitable for commercial preparation of edible oil, which has, nevertheless, a very short shelf life. To study the factors influencing the stability of flax oil, the oil was extracted from nine flax cultivars and analyzed. Linola contained about 3% of linolenic acid while, in other analyzed cultivars, its content ranged from 52% to 73%. Instead, Linola is rich in linoleic acid (about 75%), which in other cultivars varied from 12% to 18%. The susceptibility to oxidation of extracted oil has been analyzed using two methods (measurement of conjugated dienes and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) formation). Even the low linolenic acid content Linola oil was easily oxidized. The most resistant to peroxidation was the oil extracted from Abby. The potential to reduce peroxidation has been tested using natural antioxidants (b-carotene and quercetin) at concentrations ranging from 10 to 250 lM. The formation of TBARS was most efficiently reduced by 25 lM concentrations of both b-carotene and quercetin. Higher concentrations of b-carotene increased the level of TBARS. The efficiency of b-carotene and quercetin varied, depending on the analyzed cultivar, probably due to intrinsic content of antioxidants.
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