Determination of lipid composition of cherimoya (Annona cherimola) cultivars grown in Andalusian region.

Background and objectives: Cherimoya is a tropical fruit. Nowadays, cherimoya is consumed as fresh fruit, although its industrial use is being currently evaluated. Recently, the number of studies related to economic exploitation of seeds and other by-products proceeding from new oleaginous vegetable sources has increased. Therefore, the aim of this work was the characterization of lipidic fraction of the edible portion of the cherimoya and their by-products. Methods: Pulp, seed and skin of two different varieties of cherimoya were crushed, liophilizated, and lipids were extracted with the Folch procedure. Several chromatographic techniques were used to determine fatty acid, tocopherol, sterol and phospholipid composition. Results: Different fatty acid compounds were identified in pulp, seed and skin. The major fatty acids were palmitic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid. Appreciable differences were detected in pulp, skin and seed fatty acid composition; seed reported as principal fatty acids oleic, linoleic n6 and palmitic acid, respectively. Skin and pulp contained higher content of linoleic n3 fatty acid. alpha-tocoferol and delta-tocoferol were identified only in seeds; moreover alpha-tocoferol was also detected in skin. No tocopherols were quantified in pulp. Three different phospholipid, as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine, were identify. Total phospholipid content varied between 8.2 and 184 mg/g of fat. As expected the major content was found in pulpa and skin. Finally, sterols were determined in all samples. Beta-sitosterol was the first sterol in all samples. Surprisingly, gamma-sitosterol was detected only in pulp and skin of Fino de Jete cultivar. Conclusions: The results obtained confirmed that the lipid distribution depends on the cultivar and, in the same cultivar, it varied in the different zones of the fruit. These preliminary results suggested that gamma-sitosterol can be used as marker of Fino de Jete cultivar. However further investigations are needed.