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Fatty acid composition of Camellia oleifera oil

Article  in  Journal für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit · March 2010

DOI: 10.1007/s00003-010-0581-3

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J. Verbr. Lebensm. (2011) 6:9–12
DOI 10.1007/s00003-010-0581-3
GENERELLE ASPEKTE
Fatty acid composition of Camellia oleifera oil
Jinlin Ma • Hang Ye • Yukui Rui •
Guochen Chen • Naiyan Zhang
Received: 31 January 2010 / Accepted: 12 February 2010 / Published online: 9 March 2010
Ó Springer Basel AG 2010
Abstract Camellia oleifera originates from China
and is important for the economy of southern China.
Seeds from the cultivars LCDG, YAYC, and CR3 of
Camellia oleifera were analyzed for their amount of 14
different fatty acids (unsaturated, monounsaturated,
polyunsaturated, and saturated). In contrast to for-
mer investigations additional kinds of fatty acids
could be isolated from Camellia oleifera seeds: The
composition of this oil is very similar to olive oil,
comprising 67.7–76.7 % oleic acid, 82–84 % unsatu-
rated fatty acids, 68–77 % monounsaturated fatty
acids, and 7–14 % polyunsaturated acids. Moreover,
Camellia oleifera oil has many advantages to rapeseed
oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, safflower seed oil, and
especially pig oil.
Keywords Camellia oleifera oil
Fatty acids

Unsaturated fatty acids
Monounsaturated
fatty acids
Polyunsaturated fatty acids
J. Ma, H. Ye, and Y. Rui contributed equally to this work.
Dr. Y. Rui (&)
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences,
China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: ruiyukui@163.com
J. Ma
H. Ye
G. Chen
N. Zhang
GuangXi Forestry Research Institute (GFRI),
Nanning 530002, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China
J. Ma
Central South University of Forestry and Technology,
Changsha 41004, Hunan, People’s Republic of China
Journal für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit
Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety
1 Introduction
Camillia oleifera, a shrub (Fig. 1), originates from
China and is distributed in 18 provinces, cities, or
municipalities of the south of China, such as Guan-
gxi, Hunan, and Jiangxi, and is less present in the
north of South East Asia. The tea-oil (Camellia oleifera
oil), a high quality edible oil, which can probably
protect liver against CCl4-induced oxidative damage
(Lee et al. 2007), is extracted from Camelia oleifera
seeds. Camellia oleifera oil is one of the four edible
tree oils (palm oil, olive oil, coconut oil) (Zhang et al.
2007a). The planting area in China is about
3.67 9 106 m2, the yield of Camellia oleifera oil is
200,000 t per year (Wang et al. 2008) and therefore
important for the economy of the south of China.
Tea-oil was also called ‘‘eastern olive oil’’ by Long
and Wang (2008), because it contains abundant
unsaturated fatty acids, consisting of oleic acid and
linoleic acid. Olive oil contains about 77 % mono-
unsaturated fatty acids and several compounds
which can reduce the risk of cancer (Chen et al.
2009). In the south of China the consumption of
Camellia oleifera oil has a long tradition, the com-
position and amount of the fatty acids in this oil,
however, have been not systematically enough
analyzed so far.
In this study seeds from the three cultivars LCDG,
YAYC, and CR3 of Camillia oleifera - originated from
the Guangxi province in the south of China - were
analyzed with respect to their amount of 14 different
kinds of fatty acids (unsaturated, monounsaturated,
polyunsaturated, and saturated) and the resulting
recommendation for consumption of Camellia olei-
fera oil.
123
10 J. Ma et al.

2 Materials and methods

The three cultivars LCDG, YAYC, and CR3 of Camellia

oleifera were obtained from GuangXi Forestry
Research Institute.
Fatty acids were isolated by (1) grinding of 5 g of
Camellia oleifera seeds in a High Speed Tissue Masher
and (2) following extraction with petroleum ether
(Rui et al. 2007). The extract were analysed by
Hydrolytic Extraction Gas Chromatography (Chinese
standard GB/T 22223-2008; Rui et al. 2007).

3 Results and discussion

Fig. 1 Camellia oleifera In contrast to former investigations (Wang et al.

2008) our results show much higher amounts of oil in
the seeds of the three cultivars LCDG, YAYC, and CR3

Table 1 Concentration of
Cultivar LCDG Cultivar YAYC Cultivar CR3
fatty acids in Camellia
oleifera oil (mg/g) C14:0 0.22 0.30 0.28
C16:0 48.92 47.98 38.74
C16:1 0.43 0.47 0.54
C18:0 7.74 9.82 12.50
C18:1 290.19 335.93 354.20
C18:2 56.48 27.29 30.65
C19:0 20.17 20.24 20.26
C18:3 1.37 1.87 1.39
C20:0 0.14 0.22 0.26
C20:1 2.03 1.82 2.04
C22:0 0.07 0.08 0.11
C22:1 0.17 0.13 0.15
C24:0 0.15 0.19 0.24
C24:1 0.33 0.22 0.29
Total 428.41 446.55 461.64

FID1 A, (WZ100104\001B0102.D)
C18:1n9

pA

350
C16:0

300
C18:2

250

200
C19:0

150

100
C18:3n3
C18:0

C20:1
C16:1

C24:1
C24:0
C14:0

C20:0

C22:1
C22:0

50

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 min

Fig. 2 The composition and amount of fatty acids in the oil of Camellia oleifera cultivar LCDG

123
Fatty acid composition of Camellia oleifera oil 11

FID1 A, (WZ100104\003B0301.D)

C18:1n9
pA

350

300

C16:0
250

200

C18:2
C19:0
150

100

C18:0

C18:3n3

C20:1
C16:1

C24:0
C24:1
C22:1
C22:0
50

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 min

Fig. 3 The composition and amount of fatty acids in the oil of Camellia oleifera cultivar YAYC

FID1 A, (WZ100104\007B0701.D)
C18:1n9

pA

350

300
C16:0

250

200
C18:2

150
C19:0
C18:0

100
C18:3n3

C20:1
C16:1
C14:0

C24:1
C24:0
C22:1
C22:0
50

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 min

Fig. 4 The composition and amount of fatty acids in the oil of Camellia oleifera cultivar CR3

Table 2 Comparison of
Oils Monounsaturated Polyunsaturated The source
Camellia oleifera oil with
fatty acid (%) fatty acid (%)
edible oil of other origin
Olive oil 77 9 http://blog.jianghu.taobao.com
Rapeseed oil 48 34
Peanut oil 13 78
Soybean oil 25 62
Safflower Seed Oil 24 61
Pig oil 47 12
Camellia oleifera oil 68–77 7–14 This study

of Camellia oleifera, i.e. 42.8–46.1 %, which is also 4). In the fatty acid composition of the Camellia ol-
much higher than those of soybean, rape seed, shel- eifera oil oleic acid was predominant, succeeded by -
led cotton seed, and sunflower seed, and similar to dependent on the Cultivar - linoleic acid or hexa-
those of shelled peanuts and sesame seed (Table 1).1 decanoic acid. Ten fatty acids, isolated in this
The results in Table 1 represent the composition investigation (C14:0, C16:1, C18:3, C19:0, C20:0, C20:1,
and the amounts of fatty acids in the seeds of the C22:0, C22:1, C24:0, and C24:1), were also identified
three cultivars LCDG, YAYC, and CR3 of Camellia ol- by Wang et al. (2008) and Wu et al. (2006). Six fatty
eifera: 14 different fatty acids were found (Figs. 2, 3, acids, isolated in this investigation (C14:0, C19:0,
C22:0, C22:1, C24:0, and C24:1), are comparable to the
1
http://www.yzm930.net/myproducts.php3?pid=2169 results of Zhang et al. (2007b).

123
12 J. Ma et al.

Table 3 Ratio of unsaturated fatty acid, monounsaturated fatty
acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid and saturated fatty acid in
Camellia oleifera oil (%)
LCDG YAYC CR3
Unsaturated fatty acid 0.82 0.82 0.84
Monounsaturated fatty acid 0.68 0.76 0.77
Polyunsaturated fatty acid 0.14 0.07 0.07
Saturated fatty acid 0.18 0.18 0.16
Therefore our results demonstrate that Camellia
oleifeira oil has much more oleic acid, unsaturated,
monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids
than rapeseed oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, safflower
seed oil, and especially pig oil (Tables 2, 3) and is
thereby much more similar to olive oil, which is used
as excellent dressing and cooking fat in Mediterra-
nean countries (Maggio et al. 2009). So Camellia
oleifera oil should be a healthy eatable oil, also in
respect to reduce the risk of cancer (Gerber 1997).
Acknowledgements The authors appreciate the financial
support of the National Project of Scientific and Technical
Supporting Programs of the Eleventh 5-year Plan Period Fun-
ded by Ministry of Science & Technology of China (No.
2006BAD18B02-04). This work is also supported by the Eleventh
5-year Plan Period Funded by Guangxi province forest Science
& Technology (Gui Lin Ke Zi [2009] N. 6).
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