Extraction, Characterization and Fatty Acids Profiles of Nymphaea Lotus and Nymphaea Pubescens Seed Oils

ABSTRACT: Fats and oils are part of food constituents, and may play a vital role in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries. There are several underutilized plants which their seeds have not been fully studied in terms of oil extraction and characterization. In this work two underutilized plants seeds Nymphaea lotus and Nymphaea pubescens were studied. Oils from these two seeds were extracted using soxhlet extraction with n-hexane. Gas chromatographic coupled mass spectrometry analysis of the N. lotus seed oil showed that linoleic (13.01%), palmitoleic (4.46%), arachidic (9.01%) and stearic (12.45%) acids were the major fatty acids whereas oleic (37.85%), palmitic (23.57%) and stearic (5.71%) were the major fatty acids detected in N. pubescens seed oil. In addition, oil extracted from N. pubescens seed was found to have better quality than N. lotus seeds. The fatty acids composition of N. pubescens seed oil is similar to palm and groundnut oil. Extracted oil from of N. pubescens seed is unsaturated which type is classified in the oleic – linoleic acid group. This work has shown that N. pubescens seed oils have great nutritional and industrial potentials.