Characteristics of fatty acids in the Chinese jujube fruits (ZiZiphus jujuba mill.)

The characteristics of fatty acids of 21 Chinese jujube varieties from three major production regions were studied. Twenty four fatty acids were identified by GC-MS and applying fatty acids methyl esters (FAMEs) method. The results showed that the fatty acids types and contents in different jujube cultivars were significantly different. Some of jujube cultivars had high palmitoleic acid content, as examples of ‘NYSLZ’ and ‘SZDZ’ with 11516 mg/100 g and 13632 mg/100 g, respectively. Most of jujube cultivars had high contents of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids except ‘JDZ’, ‘JXZ’, ‘GZ’ and ‘ZHYMZ’. Meanwhile, the four cultivars of ‘YLZ’, ‘SYLZ’, ‘DHZ’ and ‘XHZ’ had a good balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. The ‘MZ’, ‘SYLZ’, ‘NYSLZ’ and ‘DHZ’ cultivars contained a higher unsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio than the other ones and the highest ratio was 180. In addition, the types and contents of fatty acids in jujubes from the different production areas varied. The hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) revealed that different Chinese jujube cultivars were differentiated based on their fatty acid contents. The findings of this study illustrate that the nutritional profile of different Chinese jujube cultivars varies based on the geographical location and cultivation practices. The understanding of the nutritional profile of jujube cultivars can help food and agricultural industry identify right jujube cultivars with high nutritional contents, especially beneficial fatty acids.