Comparison of Fatty Acid Compositions and Tocopherols in Perilla germplasm of South Korea

To select potential plant resources as natural antioxidants and functional materials, the evaluation of oil contents, fatty acids and tocopherols on 205 perilla accessions collected from South Korea was conducted. Total oil contents and fatty acid compositions were analyzed by Soxhlet extraction and gas chromatography [1]. The tocopherols were determined by high performance liquid chromatography [2]. The oil contents ranged from 33.9% to 48.6% with average content of 41.9%. Linolenic acid had an average content of 72.4% and ranged from 52.8% to 76.7% content. IT178424 and IT185633 showed the highest linolenic acid content with 76.7% respectively. The tocopherol average concentrations of perilla were 6.4 µg/g of α-tocopherol, 0.5 µg/g of β-tocopherol, 133.3 µg/g of γ-tocopherol, and 1.0 µg/g of δ-tocopherol. IT105396 (206.3 µg/g) and IT103368 (205.5 µg/g) had high content of γ-tocopherol whereas IT191136 had the lowest γ-tocopherol (60.5 µg/g). Although there was a positive correlation (r = 0.739*) between γ- and δ-tocopherol, there was no significant difference between oil compositions and tocopherols. IT178424, IT185633, IT105396 and IT103368 will be available as useful plant resources for natural antioxidants and functional foods.

This study was carried out from the support of “Research Program for Agricultural Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ012493)”, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

[1] Ciftci, O. N, Przybylski, R, Rudzińska, M. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol, 2012, 114: 794 – 800. doi:10.1002/ejlt.201100207

[2] Y.Y. Lee, H.M. Park, C.K. Lee, S.L. Kim, T.Y. Hwang, M.S. Choi, Y.U. Kwon, W.H. Kim, S.J. Kim, S.C. Lee, Y.H. Kim. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis. 2012, 27:70 – 80