Characterization of Opuntia ficus indica seed oil from Tunisia

The lipid fraction of Opuntia ficus indica seeds was extracted and analyzed for its chemical and physical properties such as acid value, free fatty acid percentage (% FFA), iodine index, peroxide value, and saponification value as well as refractive index and density. The yield of seed oil was calculated as 11.75%. The acid and free fatty acid values indicated that the oil has a fairly low acidity. The triacylglycerols, fatty acids, sterols, and tocopherols were identified and their concentrations determined. The main TAGs were LLL (25.60%), OLL (21.53%), PLL (15.53%), and POL + SLL (12.73%). Linoleic acid (60.69%) was the dominant fatty acid, followed by oleic (21.42%) and palmitic (12.76%) acids, respectively. A high level of sterols making up 16.06 g/kg seed oil was present. The sterol marker, β-sitosterol, accounted for 71.60% of the total sterol content in the seed oil. Among the tocopherols present in the oil, γ-tocopherol (421.08 mg/kg) was the main constituent.