Lipophilic profile of mature seeds of unconventional edible tree legumes

Several tree legume species’ (Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Leucaena leucocephala, Pithecellobium dulce, Samanea saman, Sesbania grandiflora and Tamarindus indica) mature seeds were investigated for their lipophilic fraction profile. The oil yield ranged 2.1–14.9%. Linoleic acid was generally dominant (31.86–62.28%), followed by oleic (14.95–33.84%) and palmitic (7.21–17.54%) acid. Total tocochromanol content ranged 41.7–326.0 mg 100 g−1 oil. Tocopherols (Ts), especially α-T (23.0–197.8 mg 100 g−1 oil) and γ-T (7.3–264.0 mg 100 g−1 oil), dominated, and the seeds either did not contain tocotrienols or the content was negligible. Total carotenoid content ranged 2.1–11.8 mg 100 g−1 oil. Only C. pulcherrima and P. dulce contained squalene. The total sterol content ranged 94–1810 mg 100 g−1 oil, and the seeds contained mostly β-sitosterol, Δ5-stigmasterol, campesterol and cycloartenol. Although the oil yield is too low for commercial oil production, some of the studied species (C. pulcherrima, L. leucocephala and T. indica) could be considered as bioactive compound-rich oil sources.