Fatty acid composition of lipid extracts of some tropical cucurbit seeds

Fatty acid composition of six cucurbitaceae seed oils grown in Reunion Island (Indian Ocean) is made. The oil yieds are as following : Lagenaria leucaritha, commonly named gourd with three varieties: bottle (22,3 %) scrabby (16,4 %) and long (21,9 %); Luffa acutangula or angled Luffa (24,7 %) and Luffa cylindrica or smooth Luffa (27,4 %); Momordica charantia or margoze (32,6 %). Seed oils obtained from Luffa genus are widely abundant in palmitic(C16 : 0), oleic (C18 : 1) and linoleic (C18 : 2) acids. Lagenaria genus seed oils providing from bottle and scrabby varieties are both together rich in palmitic (C16 : 0) and linoleic (C18 : 2) acids, long variety is rather an oleic (C18 : 1) and linoleic(C18 :2) typical one. Lipids extracted from Momordica charantia are characterized by high contents of stearic acid (C 18 : 0) and conjugated acids in C18 : 3 which the most important is the alpha-eleostearic acid [C18 : 3 (9Z, 17E, 13E)].