Lipid classes, fatty acid composition and triacylglycerol molecular species of kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)Seed oils from five legume cultivars of Phaseolus vulgaris, grown in Japan, were extracted and classified by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) into seven fractions: hydrocarbons (HC; 0.7-1.4 wt-%), steryl esters (SE; 1.7-3.3 wt-%), triacylglycerols (TAG; 33.8-45.9 wt-%), free fatty acids (FFA; 0.6-1.5 wt-%), sn-1,3-diacylglycerols (1,3-DAG; 0.3-1.0 wt-%), sn-1,2-diacylglycerols (1,2-DAG; 0.4-1.2 wt-%) and phospholipids (PL; 49.4-58.8 wt-%). Fatty acids derivatized as methyl esters were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and a flame ionization detector. Molecular species and the fatty acid distribution of TAG isolated from the total lipids in the beans were analyzed by a combination of argentation-TLC and GC. A modified argentation-TLC procedure, developed to optimize the separation of the complex mixture of total TAG, provided 18 different groups of TAG, based on both the degree of unsaturation and the total length of the three acyl chains of fatty acid groups. SDT (3.2-4.2 wt-%), M 2 T (3.8-5.0 wt-%), D 3 (4.8-5.9 wt-%), MDT (8.0-13.9 wt-%), D 2 T (12.5-15.8 wt-%), MT 2 (19.4-22.7 wt-%), DT 2 (17.8-23.5 wt-%) and T 3 (9.2-13.0 wt-%) were the main TAG components. The dominant fatty acids of TAG were a-linolenic (48.5-57.8 wt-%) and linoleic (16.7-25.8 wt-%) acids, with appreciable amounts of palmitic (8.3-13.2 wt-%) and oleic (7.8-13.8 wt-%) acids. The high content of a-linolenic acid in the cultivars of P. vulgaris could very likely play a beneficial role in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease among the large populations consuming them in Japan.

Eight-carbon (C8) volatiles, such as 1-octen-3-ol, octan-3-one, and octan-3-ol, are ubiquitously found among fungi and bryophytes. In this study, it was found that the thalli of the common liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, a model plant species, emitted high amounts of C8 volatiles mainly consisting of (R)-1-octen-3-ol and octan-3-one upon mechanical wounding. The induction of emission took place within 40min. In intact thalli, 1-octen-3-yl acetate was the predominant C8 volatile while tissue disruption resulted in conversion of the acetate to 1-octen-3-ol. This conversion was carried out by an esterase showing stereospecificity to (R)-1-octen-3-yl acetate. From the transgenic line of M. polymorpha (des6(KO)) lacking arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, formation of C8 volatiles was only minimally observed, which indicated that arachidonic and/or eicosapentaenoic acids were essential to form C8 volatiles in M. polymorpha. When des6(KO) thalli were exposed to the vapor of 1-octen-3-ol, they absorbed the alcohol and converted it into 1-octen-3-yl acetate and octan-3-one. Therefore, this implied that 1-octen-3-ol was the primary C8 product formed from arachidonic acid, and further metabolism involving acetylation and oxidoreduction occurred to diversify the C8 products. Octan-3-one was only minimally formed from completely disrupted thalli, while it was formed as the most abundant product in partially disrupted thalli. Therefore, it is assumed that the remaining intact tissues were involved in the conversion of 1-octen-3-ol to octan-3-one in the partially disrupted thalli. The conversion was partly promoted by addition of NAD(P)H into the completely disrupted tissues, suggesting an NAD(P)H-dependent oxidoreductase was involved in the conversion.

In this study, changes in fatty acid distributions of pumpkin seeds (Cucurbita spp) in the course of the roasting process were investigated. Whole pumpkin seeds were exposed to microwaves for 6, 12, 20 or 30 min at a frequency of 2450 MHz. The kernels were separated from the seeds, and the lipid components and the fatty acid distributions of triacylglycerols (TAGs) and phospholipids (PLs) were analysed by a combination of thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography. Major lipid components were TAGs, free fatty acids (FFAs) and PLs, while steryl esters and diacylglycerols were also present in minor proportions. The greatest PL losses (p < 0.05) were observed in phosphatidyl ethanolamine, followed by phosphatidyl choline or phosphatidyl inositol. With a few exceptions, significant differences (p < 0.05) in fatty acid distributions occurred when the seeds were microwaved for 20 min or more. Nevertheless, the positional characteristics of fatty acid distributions in the TAGs were still retained after 20 min of roasting: unsaturated fatty acids were predominantly concentrated in the sn-2-position, and saturated fatty acids primarly occupied the sn-1-or sn-3-position. These results suggest that no significant changes in fatty acid distribution of TAGs and PLs would occur within 12 min of microwave roasting, thus ensuring that a good-quality product would be obtained.