## 3 Results and Discussion
### Total Fat and Fatty Acid Profile of Amaranth Varieties  
Table 4 presents the dry matter and total fat content, and fatty acid profile of amaranth. The dry matter content was in the range of 88.83 and 89.23 g/100 g for brown and white amaranth, respectively. The crude fat content of white amaranth (9.14 mg/100 g DM) was significantly higher (\(p<0.05\)) than that of the other two varieties, which was 8.44 mg/100 g DM and 8.28 mg/100 g DM, for brown and red amaranth, respectively. The result shows that the fat content of amaranth was higher than that found in other pseudocereals such as teff (2.57 g/100 g), quinoa (6.30 g/100 g) [25], buckwheat (2.7 g/100 g) [24], millet (3.38-6.49 g/100 g) [33] and _Amaranthus caudatus_ from the Spanish market (5.81 g/100 g) [26]. Total fatty acid content ranged between 5409 and 6111 mg/100 g DM; however, there was no statistically significant difference (\(p>0.05\)) among the varieties considered. The major fatty acids measured in amaranth, in decreasing order, were linoleic (C18:2, _cis, cis-_9,12), oleic (C18:1 _cis_ 9), palmitic (C16:0), stearic (C18:0) and vaccenic (C18:1 _cis_ 11) (Table 4). The content of linoleic acid in red amaranth (46.39%) was approximately 10% higher than that found in white (35.73%) and brown (36.55%) amaranth varieties. The content in the former variety was comparable with that found in teff varieties (Table 2), higher than that reported for oat (34.6-38.2%) [30] but lower than that reported for foxtail millets (\(\sim\)67%) [33]. The increased level of linoleic acid in red amaranth is compensated for by a decrease in oleic acid by approximately 10% compared to the other varieties (Table 4). Linoleic acid is a precursor for the higher omega 6 fatty acid called arachidonic acid within the body. Hence, the presence of a reasonable amount of linoleic acid in the diet minimizes the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) [34]. The content of vaccenic acid in amaranth ranged between 1.20 and 1.44%; red amaranth had significantly higher (\(p<0.05\)) levels than brown and white amaranth. The content of stearic (C18:0) acid was also significantly lower (\(p<0.05\)) for red amaranth (2.43%) with respect to white (3.50%) and brown (3.27%) varieties. The content in the latter varieties was comparable to that found in the teff varieties considered in the present study (Table 1). The content of stearic acid in amaranth varieties (2.43-3.5%) was by far higher than that reported in other pseudocereals such as buckwheat (2.00%) and quinoa (0.59%) [24] but lower than that reported in millet (5.45-8.24%) [33]. The content of palmitic acid (C16:0) in amaranth was in the range of 20.81 to 21.09% with no statistical difference among the varieties at \(p>0.05\). However, the result was higher than that found in teff (16.40-18.16%) (Table 2), millet (6.65-7.86%) [33], quinoa (9.18%) [24] and maize (12.61-16.22%) [27], but it was comparable with that reported in buckwheat (19.96%) [24] and oat (21.4-22.8%) [30]. The content of omega 3 fatty acid was less than 1% in all amaranth varieties. This finding is in accordance with data reported by [PERSON] et al. [35]. Table 5 shows the proportion of fatty acid groups and the atherogenic and thrombogenic indices of amaranth varieties. The total saturated fatty acid content for red amaranth (27.74%) was significantly lower than that of brown amaranth (28.52%) (\(p<0.05\)), while there was no statistical difference between the contents of unsaturated fatty acid for all amaranth varieties. Moreover, the content of MUFA was lower in red (24.71%) than in white (35.16%) and brown (34.16%) amaranth. On the contrary, the content of PUFA was higher for red amaranth (47.48%) with respect to white (36.47%) and brown (37.30%) amaranth, but it was lower compared to that found in teff (48.11-50.22%) (Table 3). The presence of a lower content of PUFAs in amaranth, compared to teff, can improve the oxidative and shelf stability of amaranth flour compared to teff flour.