Bitter vetch seed oil (Vicia ervilia L.) – A new source of bioactive components

Department of Chemical Technology, University of Plovdiv ‘Paisii Hilendarski’, 24 Tzar Asen Str., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria E-mail: zhanapetkova@uni-plovdiv.net Manuscript received online 20 October 2020, revised and accepted 31 October 2020 Nowadays, the demand of underused plants which may be a new sources of bioactive compounds is constantly growing. For that reason, the lipid composition of bitter vetch seed oil (Vicia ervilia L.) has been examined. The plant has Russian origin but has been introduced in southern Bulgaria. The oil content of the seeds is rather low (1.4%), but the lipids are rich in unsaponifiable matter (39.7%) – phytosterols (4.7%), tocopherols (4010 mg/kg) and carotenoids (684 mg/kg). Unsaturated fatty acids (73.4%) predominate in the glyceride oil and the main ones are oleic (52.0%) and linoleic (20.4%) acids. The ma­jor saturated fatty acid is palmitic with amount of 20.8%. The quantity of monounsaturated fatty acids (52.6%) is higher than that of polyunsaturated (20.8%) ones. β-Sitosterol (83.3%) is the main component in the sterol fraction, followed by campesterol (12.1%). Only two tocopherols (α- and Ƴ-) are identified in the tocopherol fraction, in which y-tocopherol predominates (87.6%). Total phospholipids in bitter vetch seeds are 0.7% and the major component is phosphatidylinositol (28.9%). Fatty acid com­position of three classes of the phospholipids (phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine) in the seeds has also been examined. Oleic acid is the main fatty acid in the last two phospholipids (61.1 and 48.2%, respectively), while palmitic acid (46.8%) predominates in phosphatidylinositol. These results depict that the oil from bitter vetch seeds is a promising source of bioactive components and can be successfully implemented in different functional food ingredients.