The fatty acid composition of the raw material from sea buckthorn
Authors: Naumenko L. S. , Popova N. V. 
Published: April 2022

Today, the relevance of studying medicinal plants and creating medicines based on them occupies a special place in medicine and pharmacy. Interest in the study of already known and new medicinal plants of the domestic flora is growing. On their basis, new herbal medicines and dietary supplements are created, which due to their unique compositionhave a mild therapeutic and complex effect on the organs and systems of the human body. They are virtually devoid of side effects, and they do not develop addiction.
Aim. To study the qualitative composition and the content of fatty acids in the medicinal plant raw material from sea buckthorn using the chromatographic method; to determine the specific feature of the fatty acid composition for identification of the sea buckthorn raw material.
Materials and methods. The study objects were leaves, fruit pulp, seeds and bark of sea buckthorn harvested at the pharmacopoeial garden of the National University of Pharmacy (2018). The analysis was performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS).
Results and discussion. The results of the analysis indicate that the medicinal plant raw material from sea buckthorn has a rich diverse composition of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, namely: in the leaves of sea buckthorn there are significant amounts of fatty acids. Among saturated fatty acids there are palmitic (55.33 mg/g), behenic (1.07 mg/g),stearic (1.03 mg/g), arachinic (0.91 mg/g), lignocerinic (0.78 mg/g), margaric (0.32 mg/g), myristic (0.28 mg/g) acids; among unsaturated fatty acids – oleic (7.79 mg/g), linoleic (2.42 mg/g). Fatty acids of the sea buckthorn bark are representedby saturated arachidonic (20.85 mg/g), palmitic (2.14 mg/g), erucic (2.09 mg/g), heneukocylic (1.87 mg/g),behenic (1.38 mg/g) acids and unsaturated oleic (5.75 mg/g) and linoleic (4.86 m/g) fatty acids. In the pulp of sea buckthorn fruits 9 fatty acids have been identified. Palmitic acid (23.55 mg/g) is contained in large quantities, there are also stearic acid (2.68 mg/g), myristic acid (1.36 mg/g), arachinic acid (0.87 mg/g). Among unsaturated acids, oleic acid (44.42 mg/g), linoleic acid (12.49 mg/g), linolenic acid (5.96 mg/g), palmitoleic acid (5.16 mg/g) and vaccenic acid (3.79 mg/g) have been identified. The seeds of sea buckthorn contain 8 fatty acids. Three of them are saturated: palmitic (15.89 mg/g), stearic (2.51 mg/g), myristic (0.71 mg/g), and there are five unsaturated acids: oleic (31.41 mg/g), linoleic (27.03 mg/g),linolenic (17.00 mg/g), vaccenic (2.86 mg/g) and palmitoleic (2.56 mg/g).
Conclusions. The results of the analysis show a rich fatty acid composition of the medicinal plant raw material from sea buckthorn. It has been determined that the specific feature is the presence and the ratio of palmitoleic and vaccenic acid in the pulp and seeds; this feature is characteristic when identifying the sea buckthorn raw material. Thus, this raw material can be promising for the creation of medicines and dietary supplements based on it, for the treatment and prevention of various diseases.