FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION OF MELON SEED OIL LIPIDS AND PHOSPHOLIPIDS

Fatty acid compositions of crude melon seed oil from two different sources were compared. Melon seeds from Citrullus vulgaris (syn. C. lanatus) contained phosphatidylcholine (PC), lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and phosphatidylserine (PS), whereas melon seeds from Citrullus colocynthis contained only PC and LPC, but not PS. Analysis of the total lipids revealed that the major fatty acid of the oils was 18:2n-6. Citrullus vulgaris seed oil contained 71.3% and C. colocynthis contained 63.4% of 18:2n-6. The predominant fatty acids in the C. vulgaris PC were 18:2n-6 (32.2%),18:1n-9 (26.4%) and 16:0 (22.2%), whereas the C. colocynthis PC contained 44.6% of 18:1n-9 as the major fatty acid. The level of monoenes in the C. colocynthis variety (46.2%) was different from the C. vulgaris (27.3%). The major fatty acid in the LPC was 18:1n-9 for both varieties. Notably, the C. colocynthis variety did not contain any PS. The major fatty acids in the C. vulgaris PS were 18:1n-9 (37.9%) and 18:2n-6 (33.7%). Of all the phospholipids, LPC contained the greatest amount of monoenes, 48.6-52.4%.