Fatty acid and amino acid composition of citrullus colocynthis seeds growing in Algeria

Abstract

Citrullus colocynthis is an herbaceous perennial wild species of the Cucurbitaceae family, used in traditional medicine in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. In the present work, C. colocynthis seed oils have been assessed for their fatty acids profile and concentration by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), while oil and protein extracts were investigated in respect to their amino acid compositions by using Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-QqQ-MS/MS) instrumentation. Results revealed that the predominant fatty acids in C. colocynthis seeds were linoleic (70.7 %), oleic (10.9 %), palmitic (8.3 %), and stearic (7.8 %) acids. On other hand, the analysis of the free amino acids content noticed the presence of threonine (0.32 μgmL-1), valine (0.26 μgmL-1), and tryptophan (0.19 μgmL-1). Besides, the C. colocynthis seeds oil contained the non-essential amino acids like serine (0.29 μgmL-1), ethanolamine (0.18 μgmL-1), glycine (0.25 μgmL-1) and aspartic acid (0.12 μgmL-1). In conclusion, the results obtained revealed the valuable nutritional value of C. colocynthis and derived co-products, suggesting its suitability to be used as a nutritional ingredient and to be considered in the development of dietary supplements.