Physicochemical and Fatty Acids Composition of Barberry integerrima seed integerrima seed integerrima seed integerrima seed integerrima seed integerrima seed Integerrima seed seed seed Seed

In this study, chemical composition of Barberry integerrima seed and physicochemical properties and fatty acids composition of its oil were determined. The seeds contained 11.4 % oil and protein, moisture, crude fiber and ash contents were 17.0%, 19.1%, 48.8% and 2.9%, respectively. The main fatty acids recognized by gas chromatography were linolenic (ω-3), linoleic (ω-6) and oleic (ω-9) acid (38.3, 37.0, 15.5%, respectively). The density and refractive index of the extracted barberry seed oil were 0.821 and 1.4780, respectively. FFA (% as oleic acid), acid value (mg KOH/g oil), iodine value (g I2/100 g oil), saponification number (mg KOH/ g oil), and unsaponifiable matter content (%) of the extracted oil from Barberry integerrima seeds were 0.70, 1.4, 180.0, 197.2, and 2.3, respectively. Color of extracted crude oil exhibited red unit 4.9, yellow unit 18.6 and blue unit 1.9, respectively. Total phenolics compounds (mg Gallic acid/kg oil), total tocopherols (mg/kg oil) and total sterols (mg/100g oil), were 323.0, 111.1 and 762.3, respectively. Specific extinctions at 232 nm (K232) and 270 nm (K270) and R-value (K232/K270) were 3.9, 2.2 and 1.8, respectively. The present study revealed that Barberry integerrima seed oil can be a valuable source of oil for food, pharmaceutics and cosmetics uses. DOI : 10.14302/issn.2379-7835.ijn-14-478 Corresponding Author: Mohammad Ali Sahari, Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. P. O. Box: 14115-336, Tehran, Iran Tel: +98-21-48292328, Fax: +98-21-48292200, E-mail Addresses: sahari@madares.ac. ir or m.alisahari@gmail.com Received: May 30, 2014; Accepted: Jan 06, 2016; Published : Feb 19, 2016; Freely Available Online www.openaccesspub. org | IJN CC-license DOI : 10.14302/issn.2379-7835.ijn-14-478 Vol-1 Issue 4 Pg. no. 9 Introduction: The healthful effects of minor components available in vegetable oils have become a topic of renewed interest in recent years (1). Nowadays, especially valuable vegetable oils (such as berry seed oils) are gaining attention owing to their health properties which are linked to their high value of antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Different types of barberry are popular around the world for various benefits such as medical, ornamental and food uses (2). The genus Berberis belongs to Berberidaceae family (3). Barberry is an evergreen and self-fertile plant (4) which is represented by about 12 genera and 600 species. Berberis L. is the major group of this family with around 500 species (3,5). However, many of them may be equivalent (6). Distribution of Barberries perhaps appeared before Palaeocene in Eastern Asia (7). The Asia (or Eurasia) and South America are two centers of variety of the genus (6,8,9). Popular barberry has Asian origin, that presumably relates to Western and Middle Asiatic mountains (10). Iranian barberries are classified, according to their botany, into five wild species including Berberis Orthobotrys Bienert ex Schneid, Berberis vulgaris L. , Berberis integerrima Bunge, Berberis crataegina DC. , Berberis khorasanica Browicz and Zielinski (11-13). The precedent of zereshk slew in Iran dates back to two centuries ago (14). In commercial scale, Iran is the only country that generates seedless crop (15,16). B. integerrima (abi) and B. vulgaris (poloei) are two important barberry species in Iran (17). Integrifolious barberry (Zereshk-e Abi in Persian syn. B. integerrima) is a very wide distribution in Iran (13,18). B. Integerrima is a spiny shrub with brittle branches to a altitude of 1 to 3 meters. This type of barberry has small, red and ellipsoid fruits, with a mild sour taste and 7-10 mm long and 3-4 mm diameter. There are two, three or even five small fusiform seeds inside the fruit (17). The barberry’s fruits are used as food flavoring (19). A lot of Berberis L. species are used to diminish insomnia (20), bronchial diseases, and urinary and gastrointestinal inconveniences, liver disorder and as an antibacterial, antifungal (21), antipyretic, (22), antirheumatic (23), agent in traditional medication. Compounds including berberine, chloride, oxyacanthine, palmatine chloride, quaternary protoberberines, berbamine, and bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids are the major constituents of this plant (21, 24-26). Berberine has multitude pharmacological activities, such as its hypotensive, the immune system stimulation, and sedative attributes; it applies some positives effects on activities of central nervous system, including protective effect in depression, cerebral ischemia, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, mental depressionand schizophrenia, via increasing the value of norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine or in the brain (27-29). The chemical composition for the most common vegetable oils is well known, while, the information is little concerning these compounds in berry seed oils. In the present work, cold-pressed and filtered oils from Barberry integerrima seeds are studied and composition of the whole seed and physicochemical properties of the crude oil were determined. In addition, valuable compounds in the oils’ potential as functional foods were identified such as the fatty acid composition, including EFAs, total phenolic content, unsaponifiable matter and tocopherols fraction. Materials and Methods: