Comparative study of the mineral element and fatty acid composition of Dacryodes edulis pulp and seed.

摘要

A comparative study was carried out on the mineral element composition and fatty acid content of Dacryodes edulis pulp and seed using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy and Gas Chromatographic methods respectively. The mineral element composition of the pulp ranged from 3.88 ppm for manganese to 298.07 ppm for sodium while that of the seed is 0.18 ppm for zinc to 85.15 ppm for potassium. The result revealed that D. edulis pulp is by far richer in mineral element content than the seed with sodium being the most prevalent followed by magnesium and then potassium. Potassium was the most abundant in the seed followed by magnesium and then sodium. Fatty acid composition varied greatly between the pulp and the seeds. The pulp contains more of unsaturated fatty acid (69.88%) than the seeds (39.13%) which makes it more nutritionally interesting. The two oils however are rich in oleic and linoleic acid and they both contain two of the essential fatty acids; this is of nutritional importance. The seed oil contains C_24:0 and C_26:0 which are long chain fatty acids. It also contains erucic acid; this is not found in the pulp oil. The saturated/unsaturated fatty acid ratio of the pulp and the seed oils are 0.52% and 1.53% respectively.