Composition of fatty acids, tocopherols, sterols, and TAGs in the lipids of flax, perilla, and chia seeds were investigated where lipid content was at 45, 40, and 35%, respectively. a-Linolenic acid (ALA) dominated among fatty acids in all oils and accounted for 58.2, 60.9, and 59.8% in flax, perilla, and chia, correspondingly in these three oils trilinolenin was the main TAG found at 19.7, 22.6, and 21.3%. Triunsaturated TAGs accounted for 77.9, 77.5, and 74.5% of the total amounts in flax, perilla, and chia oils. Contents of tocopherol were at 747 in flax, 734 in perilla, and 446 mg/kg in chia seed lipids. g-Tocopherol was the dominating isomer contributing 72.7% in flax, 94.3% in perilla, and 94.4% in chia to the total amount of tocopherols. Flaxseed lipids contained 25.6% of plastochromanol-8, derivative of g-tocotrienol with longer side chain; perilla and chia oils contained only 1.4% of it. Phytosterols were present at 4072, 4606, and 4132 mg/kg in those seeds, respectively. Among sterols, b-sitosterol dominated and was found at 35.6, 73.3, and 49.8% of the total amounts of sterols in flax, perilla, and chia seed lipids. All of the investigated oilseeds have an excellent nutritional quality and can be a potential source of nutraceutical fats which can enrich diet in linolenic acid and other functional components.

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The composition and content of lipids, fatty acids, triacylglycerols, tocopherols and sterols in nine fenugreek genotypes were analyzed. Lipid content in fenugreek seeds ranged from 5.8 to 15.2%. Major fatty acids were: linoleic acid (45.1-47.5%), a-linolenic (18.3-22.8%), oleic (12.4-17.0%), palmitic (9.8-11.2%) and stearic (3.8-4.2%) acids. The ratios of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids were between 2.1 and 2.7. Similar fatty acid distribution was observed in all analyzed samples with some deviations. a-Tocopherol was the predominant component found in the fenugreek lipid antioxidants, and it constituted over 84% of the total amounts of tocopherols. It amounts ranged from 620 to 910 mg/kg lipids. b-Sitosterol was the major sterol in all samples, varying from 14,203 to 18,833 mg/kg of lipids. Campesterol and cycloartenol were other major sterols, and these compounds including b-sitosterol constituted 56-72% of all sterols. Fenugreek seed lipids consisted predominantly triunsaturated (56.9-66.5%) and diunsaturated (32.2-41.6%) triacylglycerides. Among these components trilinolein (LLL; 12.9-20.5%) dominated followed by PLL (14.0-20.4%), LnLnO (7.8-17.7%), PLO (5.7-11.6%), OLL (6.9-10.6%), LLLn (3.2-9.6%), and LnLnL (3.5-7.6%). Results of the study show that fenugreek seed lipids may be a source of a nutraceutical ingredient for food applications.

Health-promoting effects of curcumin are well-known; however, curcumin has a very low bioavailability due to its crystalline structure. The main objective of this study was to develop a novel green nanoparticle formation method to generate low-crystallinity curcumin nanoparticles to enhance the bioavailability of curcumin. Nanoporous starch aerogels (NSAs) (surface area of 60 m2/g, pore size of 20 nm, density of 0.11 g/cm3, and porosity of 93%) were employed as a mold to produce curcumin nanoparticles with the help of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2). The average particle size of the curcumin nanoparticles was 66 nm. Impregnation into NSAs decreased the crystallinity of curcumin and did not create any chemical bonding between curcumin nanoparticles and the NSA matrix. The highest impregnation capacity was 224.2 mg curcumin/g NSA. Curcumin nanoparticles significantly enhanced the bioaccessibility of curcumin by 173-fold when compared to the original curcumin. The concentration of curcumin in the bioaccessible fraction was improved from 0.003 to 0.125 mg/mL by impregnation of curcumin into NSAs (42-fold). This is a novel approach to produce food grade curcumin nanoparticles with reduced crystallinity and maximize the utilization of curcumin due to increased bioaccessibility.