1H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Analysis of the Triacylglyceride Composition of Cold-Pressed Oil from Camellia japonica

Camellia japonica (CJ) has oil-rich seeds, but the study of these oils has received little attention and has mainly focused only on their health properties. In the present work the relative composition of the fatty acid (FA) components of the triglycerides in cold-pressed oil from CJ is studied by 1H-NMR. The results obtained were: 75.75%, 6.0%, 0.17% and 18.67%, for oleic, linoleic, linolenic and saturated FA respectively. Levels of C18 unsaturated FA found in CJ oil were similar to those reported for olive oils. We also checked the possibility of using 13C-NMR spectroscopy; however, the results confirmed the drawback of 13C over 1H-NMR for the study of FA components of CJ triglycerides due to its low gyromagnetic ratio and its very low natural abundance.