Physicochemical properties and fatty acid compositions of tea seed oils from different areas

Tea seed oil is a novel kind of edible vegetable oil approved at home,and few researches are implemented at present.For enriching research information of tea seed and tea seed oil,tea seeds and its oils from nine areas at home were studied.The results showed that the crude fat contents of tea seeds from different areas ranged from 22.6% to 33.1%,and starch contents were also different from areas.Acid values and peroxide values of tea seed oils from different areas had great differences,but relative densities,iodine values and saponification values were similar.There were six types of fatty acids detected in tea seed oils including palmitic acid,oleic acid,linoleic acid,stearic acid,linolenic acid and arachic acid,while arachic acid was absent in tea seed oils from Hubei and Hunan provinces and no stearic acid was detected in tea seed oil from Fujian province.There was no difference in unsaturated fatty acids contents(more than 80%) among tea seed oils from all the selected areas and it was the highest(84.47%)in the tea seed oil from Fujian province.Polyunsaturated fatty acids contents of tea seed oils varied with sources of raw materials,which was richest(29.92%)in the tea seed oil from Sichuan province.