Impact of the species and variety on the concentrations of minor lipophilic bioactive compounds in oils recovered from plum kernels

The profile of bioactive compounds (carotenoids, tocopherols, tocotrienols, phytosterols and squalene) in oils recovered from the kernels of 28 plum varieties of hexaploid species Prunus domestica L. and diploid plums Prunus cerasifera Ehrh. and its crossbreeds, were studied. Oil yields in plum kernels of both species P. cerasifera and P. domestica was in wide ranges of 22.6-53.1 and 24.2-46.9% (w/w) dw, respectively. The content of total tocochromanols, carotenoids, phytosterols and squalene was significantly affected by the variety and ranged between 70.7-208.7, 0.41-3.07, 297.2-1569.6 and 25.7-80.4 mg/100 g of oil, respectively. Regardless of the cultivar, the β-sitosterol and γ-tocopherol were the main minor lipophilic compounds in plum kernel oils and constituted between 208.5-1258.7 and 60.5-182.0 mg/100 g of oil, respectively. Between the studied plum species, significant differences were recorded for δ-tocopherol (p=0.007), 24-methylenecycloartanol (p=0.038) and citrostadienol (p=0.003), but they were insufficient for discrimination by PCA.