Oil characteristics of sweet and bitter kernels of 5 Iranian cultivars of almond, apricot and peach were determined. Fatty acid composition and fat constants of peach oil were very similar to those of almond oils. Apricot oils were considerably different from almond and peach oils. The differences, however, did not seem to be valuable for any practical use.

Ten pistachio samples from various Iranian cultivars were examined for some botanical features of their nuts and oil characteristics of their kernels. The wt of 100 nuts varied from 78.5 to 136.9 g. The nuts contained 44.1-58.9% kernel. Moisture of the kernels was low, 2.5-4.1%, and the kernels contained 55.2-60.5% oil. Unsaponifiable matter (0.72-0.96%), saponification value (189.0-193.6), refractive index (1.4635-1.4643), and iodine value (98.1-100.5) showed little differences in various samples. Fatty acids detectable by gas chromatographic analysis were: traces of myristic; 9.2-13.4%, palmitic; 0.5-1.1%, stearic; traces of arachidic; 0.5-1.0%; palmitoleic; 56.1-64.0%, oleic; 22.6-31.0%, linoleic; and 0.1-0.4%, linolenic. There were no significant differences due to origin and/or cultivar of the samples.

Oil content and oil characteristics of sweet and sour cherry kernels from 8 Iranian cultivars were examined. The ranges of values were: 20.5-37.9% for the oil content of the kernels; 0.77-1.19% for unsaponfiable matter; 188.2-191.5 for saponification value; 123.1-127.8 for iodine value (Hanus); and 1.4692-1.4721 for refractive index at 40 C. As to fatty acid composition of the samples, traces of myristic, 6.7-9.9% palmitic, 0.9-4.2% stearic, 0.3-1.1% arachidic, 0.3-0.7% palmitoleic, 38.6-53.2% oleic, 33.9-51.9% linoleic, and 0.2-0.8% linolenic acids were determined by gas chromatographic analysis.

Fatty acid compositions of oleaster pulp and pit oils were determined by gas chromatography in 4 samples of different varieties. Pit oils were highly unsaturated, containing >90% linoleic, oleic, and linolenic acids, as well as traces of palmitoleic acid. Saturated fatty acids consisted of palmitic and stearic acids with traces of arachidic acid. Pulp oils showed fatty acid compositions entirely different from that of pit oils. They contained 9 saturated fatty acids, C12 to C24, some of them with high quantities, up to 34.9%, of the total fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic and linoleic, with low quantities of palmitoleic and linolenic acids composed about one‐third of the total fatty acids.