# Chemical, Nutritional and Antioxidant Characteristics of Different Food Seeds
## 3 Results and Discussion
### FAs Composition
In the case of poppy seed, flaxseed and hempseed oils, the content of oleic acid is smaller than \(8\%\). Therefore, it can be concluded that the investigated sunflower, poppy and sesame seeds are good sources of oleic acid (C18:1 (n-9)) and linoleic acid (C18:2, n-6). Linoleic acids (C18:2, n-6) are PUFAs and are found in high amounts in poppy, sunflower and sesame seeds. The main FA is linoleic acid in poppy (\(67.2\%\pm 0.80\%\)), sunflower (\(61.0\%\pm 0.70\%\)), sesame (\(60.2\%\pm 0.50\%\)) and hemp (\(55.9\%\pm 0.30\%\)) seed oils, and linolenic acid (\(73.2\%\pm 0.40\%\)) in flaxseed oil. In addition, hempseed oil contains linolenic acid (\(26.5\%\pm 0.30\%\)), but in lower amounts than flaxseed oil. The optimal ratio of linoleic acid to \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid is 3:1. Similar results (\(74.1\%\) linolenic acid, \(13.7\%\) oleic acid, \(8.99\%\) palmitic acid, \(2.15\%\) stearic acid and \(1.00\%\) linoleic acid) were reported by [PERSON] et al. [27] for poppy seed oil and by [PERSON] et al. [6] for sunflower seed oil. Furthermore, in sesame, poppy and sunflower seed oils, relatively low contents of linolenic acid (\(0.91\%\pm 0.01\%\), \(0.77\%\pm 0.02\%\) and \(0.21\%\pm 0.02\%\), respectively) were determined. The obtained results suggested that the flaxseed and hempseed oil are also good sources of linolenic acid. [PERSON] et al. reported that hemp seed oil contains linoleic acid (approximately \(50\%\)-\(70\%\) of the total seeds FAs content) and \(\alpha\)-linolenic acids from omega-3 (\(\omega\)-3) about \(15\%\)-\(25\%\)[34]. [PERSON] et al. [14] investigated the lipid profile of hempseed oil and identified the following FAs contents: \(55\%\) linoleic (C18:2 (cis+trans) (n-6)), \(16\%\) linolenic acids (C18:3, n-3) and \(11.0\%\) oleic acid (C18:1 cis (n-9)). It can be seen that the reported results are similar with our results, out of which for \(\alpha\)-linolenic (C18:3, n-3) the highest content (\(26.5\%\pm 0.30\%\)) was obtained. Another FA found in low amounts in all analyzed samples was gondoic acid (C20:1, n-9). The content of SFAs, MUFAs and PUFAs in the oilseeds and PUFAs/SFAs ratio is presented in Figure 2.  
The obtained results showed that MUFAs were represented by oleic acid (C18:1, (cis+trans) (n-9)), palmitoleic acid (C16:1, n-7), cis-11-eicosenoic acid (C20:1, n-9), 13-docosenoic (C22:1, n-9) acid and nervonic acid (C24:1, n-9). Oleic acid (C18:1, n-9) was found as the most abundant MUFA in almost all samples. Myristoleic acid (C14:1) was not determined in the analyzed samples. All analyzed seed oils contain PUFAs as a majority, in the range of 61.2%-84.8% (Table 2). The highest PUFAs content (84.8% \(\pm\) 0.08%) was obtained for flaxseed oil samples, followed by hempseed oil (82.9% \(\pm\) 0.08%). The MUFAs content varied between 6.3%-28.7%. The highest MUFAs content was obtained from sunflower seed oils. PUFAs were more abundant than MUFAs. A high content of PUFAs in seed oil samples has a great importance for health because it can influence the fluidity and permeability of cellular membranes and can help in cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune disorders [33]. Omega-6 (n-6) and omega-3 (n-3) PUFAs are essential FAs, which cannot be produced by the human body and must be obtained from the diet. Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) recommend that trans FAs should not be more than 4% in fat consumed by humans in the diet [34]. The PUFAs/SFAs ratio is considered an important parameter for determination of nutritional value and should be equal to or greater than 1 [29]. The highest PUFAs/SFAs ratio was obtained for flaxseed (16.9), followed by hempseed (14.1), while the lowest ratio was obtained for sesame seeds (4.4), which also suggests that flax and hemp have high nutritional value. Omega-3 (n-3) is represented by \(\alpha\)-linolenic acid (C18:3, n-3), cis-5,8,11,14,17-eicosenetenoic acid (EPA, C20:5 (n-3)) and cis-4,7,10,13, 16, 19-docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6 (n-3).