Fatty acids composition and physical characteristics of chickpea seeds

Liana Relina, Oleh Suprun, Liubov Kobyzeva, Olha Vazhenina, Valeriia Kolomatska, Olha Bezuhla, Nina Ilchenko, Liudmyla Vecherska

Abstract: Cicer arietinum L. is the second most widely grown legume crop in the world. Although it cannot be referred to oil-bearing seeds, its seeds are rich in nutritionally important unsaturated fatty acids, i.e. the chickpea diversity is worth evaluating for fatty acid composition. The goal was to evaluate some chemical and physical characteristics of chickpea seeds from the collection of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources of Ukraine (NCPGRU). To accomplish this, the following objectives were solved: determination of the total lipid content and geometrical characteristics of the NCPGRU’s collection chickpea seeds as well as screening them for fatty acid profiles. Twenty-eight chickpea accessions were grown in the eastern forest- steppe of Ukraine and harvested in 2018, 2019, and 2020. On average across the study years, the oil content was 6.94±0.48% and 5.91±0.98% in kabuli and desi seeds, respectively, with a significant difference between kabuli and desi types. The oil content in Ukrainian accessions ranged from 5.64±1.02% (desi chana) to 7.58±0.39% (kabuli chana). The total oil content was not significant correlated with the seed size or with the sphericity of seeds for the kabuli accessions, but it was strongly positively correlated with the seed size and sphericity for the desi ones. Five major peaks were detected in C. arietinum oil: palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids. Five minor fatty acids were also detected: myristic, palmitoleic, eicosanoic, eicosenoic, and behenic. They are ranked in order of decreasing levels as follows: linoleic > oleic >palmitic > linolenic > stearic > palmitoleic/behenic > eicosanoic > eicosenoic/myristic. The total amount of monounsaturated fatty acids was on average higher in the kabuli type (27.7±1.71% vs. 24.3±2.98% in kabuli and desi chana, respectively), while the total amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids was on average higher in the desi type (59.5±1.42% vs. 62.4±2.78% kabuli and desi chana, respectively). The other oil quality indices (desirable fatty acids [DFA], undesirable hypercholesterolemic fatty acids [UHFA], unsaturated/saturated coefficient, omega-6: omega-3 ratio, omega-9/saturated fatty acids ratio, DFA: UHFA ratio, and atherogenicity index) did not differ between kabuli and desi types. A Spanish kabuli accession, Garbanzo 2, had the best combination of these indices.

Keywords: chickpea; fatty acids; oil quality indices; seed size

Date published: 2023-04-27