## 3 Results and Discussion
### Fatty Acids  
In the present study, 29 fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were identified (Table 5) in different tissues of _Oxalis pes-caprae_; these FAMEs consisted of are composed of 8 monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), 7 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and 14 saturated fatty acids (SFAs). Although the number of SFAs was higher, the unsaturated FAMEs predominated \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c l c c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Amino Acids [mg (100 g)\({}^{-1}\) dw]**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Flowers**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Leaves**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Stems**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\(p\)**-Value**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**ANOVA**\({}^{\dagger}\)} \\ \hline \multirow{8}{*}{Essential} & Arginine & 13.0 \(\pm\) 0.37 a \({}^{\ddagger}\) & 4.91 \(\pm\) 0.02 b & 2.04 \(\pm\) 0.08 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Histidine & 19.9 \(\pm\) 7.32 a & 8.98 \(\pm\) 0.03 b & 5.57 \(\pm\) 0.04 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Isoucine & 209 \(\pm\) 1.67 a & 169 \(\pm\) 3.45 b & 170 \(\pm\) 6.63 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Leucine & 306 \(\pm\) 42.4 a & 244 \(\pm\) 9.65 b & 245 \(\pm\) 12.30 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Lysine & 5.46 \(\pm\) 0.70 b & 6.63 \(\pm\) 0.14 a & 2.16 \(\pm\) 0.08 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Methionine & 6.01 \(\pm\) 0.24 a & 4.82 \(\pm\) 0.08 b & 1.83 \(\pm\) 0.17 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Phenylalanine & 48.7 \(\pm\) 3.20 a & 50.6 \(\pm\) 1.17 a & 29.9 \(\pm\) 2.60 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Threonine & 114 \(\pm\) 3.49 a & 13.9 \(\pm\) 0.22 c & 20.3 \(\pm\) 0.25 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Typtophan & 80.1 \(\pm\) 6.07 a & 47.2 \(\pm\) 1.00 b & 24.8 \(\pm\) 3.91 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Valine & 187 \(\pm\) 9.47 a & 189 \(\pm\) 7.02 a & 134 \(\pm\) 1.72 b & 0.0000 & *** \\ \hline \multirow{8}{*}{Non-essential} & Alanine & 302 \(\pm\) 12.44 b & 307 \(\pm\) 7.40 b & 343 \(\pm\) 11.17 a & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Asparagine & n.d. & 8.42 \(\pm\) 0.22 a & 5.94 \(\pm\) 0.29 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Aspartate & 73.0 \(\pm\) 3.27 b & 91.1 \(\pm\) 3.72 a & 56.4 \(\pm\) 6.03 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Cysteine & 0.55 \(\pm\) 0.03 b & 0.69 \(\pm\) 0.02 a & n.d. c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Glutamic acid & 237 \(\pm\) 11.93 b & 325 \(\pm\) 20.9 a & 220 \(\pm\) 4.57 c & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Glycine & 55.7 \(\pm\) 6.84 a & 11.9 \(\pm\) 1.41 c & 30.4 \(\pm\) 4.72 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Proline & 102 \(\pm\) 15.32 a & 30.5 \(\pm\) 0.30 c & 50.7 \(\pm\) 4.01 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Serine & 112 \(\pm\) 22.49 a & 46.3 \(\pm\) 2.30 b & 46.3 \(\pm\) 1.42 b & 0.0000 & *** \\  & Tyrosine & 13.8 \(\pm\) 0.82 c & 40.1 \(\pm\) 2.84 a & 17.0 \(\pm\) 0.80 b & 0.0000 & *** \\ \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**TOTAL**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**1885 a**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**1600 b**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**1405 c**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**0.0000**} & *** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* * *** significant at \(p<\) 0.001. \({}^{\ddagger}\) Values (mean of 3 replications) followed by the same letter within the same row were not significantly different (\(p>\) 0.05) according to [PERSON]’s least significant difference test. n.d.: not detected.  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Amino acids found in _Oxalis pes-caprae_ L.  
and represented as much as 70-80% of the total content: flowers (MUFA + PUFA) = 73.72%; leaves (MUFA + PUFA) = 80.37%; and stems (MUFA + PUFA) = 77.76%. The three most abundant compounds were C18:3n3 (-linolenic), C18:2n6c (linoleic), and C16:0 (palmitic). In previous studies on wild edible plants, these three same compounds, along with oleic acid, were the predominant ones [14; 50; 51]. Regarding linolenic acid (FA27), there were significant differences among the tissues under analysis, with leaves having the highest content (53.57%). These results agree well with previous studies reporting contents of \(\sim\)50% of linolenic acid [27; 52; 53]; this content was reported in Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Montiaceae, Polygonaceae and Caryophyllaceae plants and more precisely in _Beta maritime_ (57.80%), _Chondrilla juncea_ (56.27%), _Montia fontana_ (55.57%), _Runex acetosella_ (51.34%), _Runex induratus_ (58.84%), and _Silene vulgaris_ (54.5%).