Fatty acids profiles of some Spanish wild vegetables

Polyunsaturated fatty acids play an important role in human nutrition, being associated with several health benefits. The analyzed vegetables, in spite of its low fat content, lower than 2%, present a high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids of n-3, n-6 and n-9 series, such as alpha-linolenic, linoleic and oleic acids, respectively. Wild edible plants contain in general a good balance of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids. The present study tries to contribute to the preservation and valorization of traditional food resources, studying the fatty acids profile of 20 wild vegetables by gas-liquid chromatography with flame ionization detection. Results show that species in which leaves are predominant in their edible parts have in general the highest polyunsaturated fatty acid/saturated fatty acid ratios: Rumex pulcher (5.44), Cichorium intybus (5.14) and Papaver rhoeas (5.00). Due to the low n-6/n-3 ratios of the majority of the samples, they can be considered interesting sources of n-3 fatty acids, especially those with higher total fat amount, such as Bryonia dioica, Chondrilla juncea or Montia fontana, with the highest contents of alpha-linolenic acid (67.78, 56.27 and 47.65%, respectively). The wild asparaguses of Asparagus acutifolius and Tamus communis stand out for their linoleic acid content (42.29 and 42.45%, respectively). All these features reinforce the interest of including wild plants in diet, as an alternative to the variety of vegetables normally used.