Resumo

MARRERO DELANGE, David; RODRIGUEZ LEYES, Eduardo Antonio; GONZALEZ CANAVACIOLO, Víctor Luis  e  MORALES RICO, Carmen Luisa. Determination of sterols determination in unsaponifiable fraction from Cuban royal palm (Roystonea regia) fruit oil. Rev Cubana Farm [online]. 2013, vol.47, n.1, pp. 110-116. ISSN 0034-7515.

Introduction: sterols have been widely studied because of their pharmaceutical and nutritional importance. However, to our knowledge, the sterol composition of the oil from the Cuban Royal Palm fruits (Roystonea regia (Kunth) F. Cook), has not been yet identified Objectives: to determine by GC-MS the sterols that could be present in the unsaponifiable fraction of R. regia oil. Methods: samples of two batches of R. regia oil were subjected to the established procedure of the US Institute for Nutraceutical Advancement to determine sterols, which mainly consists of saponification with KOH/EtOH solution and a subsequent extraction of the unsaponifiable fractions by using n-hexane. These fractions were analyzed by GC-MS as TMS derivatives and they were identified by comparing their spectra with those of commercial available standards and with spectra of the Wiley mass spectrum library. Quantification was made by using cholestane as internal standard. Results: a total sterol content of 66.1% was found in the unsaponifiable fraction of R. regia oil, which represents 0.14% from the oil. The sterol fraction was mainly composed of â-sitosterol (51.2 %), stigmasterol (9.6 %), campesterol (9.2 %), 24-methylen-cycloartanol (9.2 %), Ä5-avenasterol (8.9 %) and cycloartanol (7.5 %) in addition to other minor components such as cycloartenol, ?-sitosterol, and cholesterol. Conclusions: sterol compounds were identified and quantified by GC-MS in the unsaponifiable fraction of R. regia oil, in which the â-sitosterol was the predominant component. These results are a contribution to the chemical composition study of such oil and could support its possible nutritional usefulness and safety.

Palavras-chave : sterols; Roystonea regia; oil; GC-MS.

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