Investigation of oxidative characteristics, fatty acid composition and bioactive compounds content in cold pressed oils of sunflower grown in Serbia and Argentina

BACKGROUND: In this work, the chemical composition analysis was performed for cold pressed oils obtained from the 15 sunflower hybrids grown in Serbia and Argentina, as well as the determination of their oxidative quality. The fatty acid composition and bioactive compounds including total tocopherols, phenols, carotenoids, and chlorophyll contents were investigated. The oxidation products were monitored through the peroxide value (PV), anisidine value (AnV), conjugated dienes (CD) and conjugated trienes (CT) content, and total oxidation index (TOTOX) under accelerated oxidation conditions by the oven method. RESULTS: Linoleic acid was the most abundant fatty acid in investigated oil samples, followed by oleic and palmitic acids. The mean contents of total tocopherols, phenols, carotenoids, and chlorophyll were 518.24, 9.42, 7.54 and 0.99 mg/kg, respectively. In order to obtain an overview of sample variations according to the tested parameters Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied. CONCLUSION: PCA indicated that phenols, chlorophyll, linoleic and oleic acid were the most effective variables for the differentiation of sunflower hybrids grown in Serbia and Argentina. Furthermore, based on the fatty acid composition and bioactive compounds content in the oils, a new Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was developed to predict the oxidative stability parameters of cold pressed sunflower oil.