Comparative Assessment of Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Prickly Pear Seed Oil from Opuntia ficus-indica and Opuntia megacantha Varieties

Table 2

Fatty acid composition of seed oils of two species of prickly pear: Opuntia ficus-indica (“Safra” and “Aakria” varieties) and Opuntia megacantha (“Derbana” variety) compared with other nutraceutical and cosmetic oils.

Fatty acids (%)	Prickly pear species and varieties			Nutraceutical and cosmetic fruit and seed oils
	Opuntia ficus-indica		Opuntia megacantha	Olive, Olea europaea [24, 31]	Argan, Argania spinosa [25]	Sesame, Sesamum indicum [26]	Black cumin, Nigella sativa [27]	Lentisk, Pistacia lentiscus [28]
	Safra	Aakria	Derbana
Myristic acid (C14 : 0)	0.10^a ± 0.00	0.11^a ± 0.00	0.13^b ± 0.00	—	—	0.10	0.20	—
Pentadecylic acid (C15 : 0)	0.05^a ± 0.01	0.06^a ± 0.00	0.21^b ± 0.05	—	—	—	—	—
Palmitic acid (C16 : 0)	13.64^b ± 0.06	13.75^b ± 0.11	13.03^a ± 0.15	7.50–20.00	11.5–15	11.30	11.90	20.51–23.01
Palmitoleic acid (C16 : 1)	0.06^a ± 0.00	0.06^a ± 0.00	0.06^a ± 0.00	0.30–3.50	0.1	—	0.20	0.38–0.53
Margaric acid (C17 : 0)	0.04^a ± 0.00	0.04^a ± 0.00	0.02^a ± 0.01	—	—	—	—	—
Heptadecenoic acid (C17 : 1)	0.04^a ± 0.01	0.04^a ± 0.00	0.03^a ± 0.02	<0.30	—	—	—	—
Stearic acid (C18 : 0)	2.97^a ± 0.02	2.99^a ± 0.01	3.30^b ± 0.00	0.50–5.00	3.4–7.4	4.9	3.20	0.98–1.30
Oleic acid (C18 : 1n9)	14.22^a ± 0.08	14.09^a ± 0.04	17.40^b ± 0.01	—	—	—	—	—
Oleic acid (C18 : 1n7)	4.66^b ± 0.03	4.67^b ± 0.02	4.42^a ± 0.01	—	—	—	—	—
Oleic acid (C18 : 1)	18.88^a ± 0.07	18.75^a ± 0.03	21.81^b ± 0.02	55.00–83.00	43.3–49.1	41.90	24.90	51.56–53.23
Linoleic acid (C18 : 2)	63.46^b ± 0.12	63.45^b ± 0.06	60.55^a ± 0.13	2.50–21.00	28–36	42.10	56.50	20.95–23.77
Linolenic acid (C18 : 3)	0.24^a ± 0.00	0.25^a ± 0.02	0.30^a ± 0.03	<1.00	<0.40	0.20	0.20	1.31–1.54
Arachidic acid (C20 : 0)	0.28^a ± 0.00	0.29^a ± 0.02	0.31^a ± 0.01	<0.50	0.30–0.50	—	0.20	—
Gadoleic acid (C20 : 1)	0.24^a ± 0.00	0.21^a ± 0.01	0.23^a ± 0.01	<0.40	0.40–0.30	—	—	—
Ratio (C18 : 2/C18 : 1)	3.36^b ± 0.00	3.38^b ± 0.00	2.78^a ± 0.00	4.71–20.33	1.36–1.54	1.00	0.44	2.07–2.40
Saturated fatty acids (SFA)	17.08^a ± 0.09	17.23^b ± 0.16	17.01^a ± 0.31	13–22	14–24	16.30	15.50	22.25–24.50
Unsaturated fatty acids (USFA)	82.92^a ± 0.09	82.77^a ± 0.15	82.99^a ± 0.30	66–96	71–88	84.30	82.10	–
USFA/SFA	4.85^a ± 0.03	4.80^a ± 0.05	4.88^a ± 0.06	3.13–5.07	3.66–5.07	5.20	5.30	3.13–3.45
Iodine value (IV)	132.81^b ± 0.15	132.73^b ± 0.11	130.34^a ± 0.35	77.50–88.56	89.6–110.4	114.60	126.2	—

Means (±standard errors) with the same letter within rows did not differ significantly according to the Student–Newman–Keuls test at .