The Mineral Source for Human Nutrition of Nuts in Different Hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) Cultivars

Hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) have a significant place among the types of dried nuts in terms of nutrition and health owing to their special composition of fats, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers and phenolic antioxidants. Different hazelnut cultivars grown in Romania ('Cozia', 'Romavel', 'Valcea 22', 'Roverd' and 'Red Lambert') were evaluated for their mineral composition. Microelements were determined by using ICP-MS and a Flame AAS. The average microelements concentrations in the cultivars have varied in the following ranges (mg 100 g(-1)): K, 591.75 - 639.13; P, 300.67 - 455.06; Mg, 205.02 - 335.54; Ca, 72.07- 130.92; Mn, 8.77 - 19.07; Fe, 5.3 - 8.77; Cu, 1.62 - 3.07; Zn, 1.82 - 2.84; Cr, 0.12 - 0.84; Na, 0.36 - 0.97; Al, 0.23 - 0.35; Sr, 0.88 - 1.6; Rb,1.34 - 3.03. According to the daily microelement requirements, the quantity of 100 g hazelnut provided approximately 13% for K, 55% for P, 70% for Mg, 10% for Ca, 94% for Fe, 22 for Zn and 5.6% for Cr of the RDA. These results indicated that hazelnuts are a rich source of a number of important micro-elements and hazelnut can be an important source of microelements for human nutrition and health.