Fatty acid composition of rosehip seed oil

Rosehip is a pseudo-fruit of the rose plant, one of the most widespread wild species of the Rosa genus in Serbia. Due to its nutritional and sensory properties, rosehip is widely utilized for the production of jams, marmalades, juices, teas, etc. On the other hand, rosehip seeds are waste material from the food industry, which represent are rich source of fatty acids. The aim of this study was to assess the fatty acids profile of rosehip seeds by applying two extraction methods: ultrasound-assisted extraction combined with organic solvent extraction (UAE/OSCE) and organic solvent conventional extraction (OSCE). The identification and quantification of fatty acids (FA), in the form of methyl esters, were performed by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC/FID). Based on the obtained results, it was observed that the composition of fatty acids and their relative amounts were influenced by the applied method, as well as by the solvent-to-sample ratio. The analysis revealed the presence of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) as the dominant ones in most studied samples, whereas the most abundant fatty acids were, in descending order, stearic acid (48.11%), linoleic acid (35.38%), palmitoleic acid (33.78%) and eicosadienoic acid (30.57%).