Characterization of the Fatty Acid and Mineral Compositions of Selected Cereal Cultivars from Turkey

In this present study, crude oil, fatty acid and mineral compositions of wheat (Triticum sp. L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), triticale (Triticosecale Wittm. ex A. Camus.), rye (Secale cereale L.), and oat (Avena sativaL.) cultivars, respectively, from Turkey were investigated. Both the distribution of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), and the mineral contents of evaluated cereals were reported. Fatty acid compositions and mineral contents were determined by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) techniques, respectively. The highest crude oil content was found in oat [cv. Seydisehir; 5.35%], whereas the lowest crude oil was in triticale [cv. Aslım-95; 1.19 %]. The results showed that the contents of total UFA in the different cultivars varied between 77.1 - 81.5 %. The major components of the cereal oils were determined as oleic and linoleic acid, respectively. The total macro-, micro- element, and heavy metal contents varied between 8638 - 16108 ppm, 113-180 ppm and 1.8 - 6.9 ppm, respectively. As a conclusion, there were significant (p < 0.01) differences between the cereal cultivars in view of their crude oil contents, fatty acid and mineral compositions of the investigated samples from Turkey.