The seed oil of pomegranate, rich in nutritional values, contains conjugated linolenic acids with different percentages. In the present study, we show how to determine the fractions of different isomeric conjugated acids by quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) referencing benzoic acid internally with a well-defined amount. Linear mathematical equations derived for the analysis of olive oil by qNMR are re-expressed for the quantitative analysis of pomegranate seed oil. The suggested method is used at first for the pomegranate seed oils extracted in the laboratory and tested for commercial probes. In the oils obtained at the laboratory, qNMR indicated the highest fraction of punicic acid for the Yeni Hijaz pomegranate cultivar seeds. Punicic acid has the highest percentage, while linolenic acid is the one with the lowest percentage. Among the commercial probes studied with the present method, only one of them showed similar content analysis as in the laboratory-derived oils. We suggest that both private and governmental food testing laboratories could utilize our qNMR approach for certifying PSO and similar oil samples for securing food safety, the presented qNMR method could be also extended for other natural samples for both quality assurance purposes.

Determination of pomegranate seed oil content by quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) spectroscopy

ACS Fall 2021

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