Fatty acid composition of lipids of Juglans regia L. fruits cultivated in Crimea

The profiles of fatty acids and total lipid content in the kernels of fruits of 7 walnut cultivars (‘Alminsky’, ‘Arkad’, ‘Burliuk’, ‘Dolinny’, ‘Karlik 3’, ‘Karlik 5’, and ‘Podarok Valentiny’) were studied in the selection of the Nikita Botanical Gardens (Republic of Crimea, Russia). The total lipid content was determined by exhaustive extraction in a Soxhlet apparatus using n-hexane as solvent. Methyl esters of fatty acids were isolated as a result of the esterification reaction with sodium methylate. The resulting dimethyl fatty acid esters were analyzed by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector. As a result, 27 fatty acids were found and identified. For all studied cultivars, the dominant acid was linoleic (C18:2ω6) acid, which belonged to ω6 unsaturated fatty acids. The obtained data shows that cis-9.12-octadecadiene (C18:2ω6), cis-9-octadecene (C18:2ω9) and cis-9.12.15-octadecatrine (C18:3ω3) fatty acids are dominant in the lipid fraction of the walnut kernels in all studied cultivars.