Fatty acid composition, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Pistacia lentiscus L. fruit oils

Abstract

This study was performed on oil extracted from mature fruits of Pistacia lentiscus L. harvested from Northern and North Western Tunisia. Extraction was done by two methods: Traditional method practiced by women in forest areas and pressing method that was proposed to improve the yield and the quality of oil. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Oleic acid was the main fatty acid with more than 56%, followed by palmitic with 27%. Antioxidant activity of these oils was improved by pressing method; the percentage of inhibition of DPPH was increased from 21 to 43% for Nefza provenance and from 19 to 29% for Bizerte one. Similarly, the highest values of trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) were reached by oils extracted by pressing method. Antibacterial activity was tested against three strains: Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Clostridium perfringens. The results showed the existence of a significant bactericidal effect in the case of C. perfringens for oils from Bizerte with an inhibition diameter of about 13 mm for the oil extracted by pressing method and 8 mm for that extracted by traditional one. The effect was not significant in the case of E. coli and S. typhimurium.

Identification of alkylsalicylic acids in Lentisk oil (Pistacia lentiscus L.) and viability assay on Human Normal Dermal Fibroblasts

“…1 and 2). These results are in accordance with data reported in the literature for Tunisian and Algerian samples (Charef et al, 2008;Mezni et al, 2012;Trabelsi et al, 2012). However, two commercial samples show very different fatty acid profiles with inversed ratio of linoleic and oleic acids, revealing probable adulteration of these two commercial products, as higher ratio of linoleic acid can be a consequence of linoleic rich oil addition such a sunflower oil (Christopoulou et al, 2004).…”

“…The results indicate that Pistacia lentiscus oils present a medium UFA/SFA ratio between 1.54 and 2.57. Mezni et al reported higher UFA/SFA ratio ranging between 2.33 and 2.84 (Mezni et al, 2012). In addition, other reports showed similar higher ratios as well (Charef et al, 2008;Trabelsi et al, 2012).…”

“…Fatty acids are analyzed after transesterification using BF 3 into their corresponding methyl-esters (Charef et al, 2008;Mezni et al, 2012;Trabelsi et al, 2012). Briefly, 50 mg of oil are diluted in 1 mL hexane, to which 0.5 mL of BF3 (14%)methanol is added.…”

“…Chemical composition of Pistacia lentiscus oil has been mainly focusing on saponifiable fraction of the oil including fatty acids, phytosterols and tocopherols (Charef et al, 2008;Mezni et al, 2012;Trabelsi et al, 2012). However, an increased interest is spotted lately with several commercial brands are spun portraying the benefits of this oil but with no stringent regulations are in force to ascertain its safe use as an edible or cosmeceutical product.…”

Effects of sub‐acute co‐exposure to WIFI (2.45 GHz) and Pistacia lentiscus oil treatment on wound healing by primary intention in male rabbits

“…In fact, a previous phytochemical analysis of Tunisian Pistacia lentiscus L . oil revealed the presence of a high concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids (73.44%), mainly fatty oleic acid (45.66%) and linolenic acid (24.21%) (Mezni et al., 2012). It was also suggested that, in one hand, the fatty acids of the lentisk oil are able to reduce epidermal water loss and increase skin hydration (McGaw et al., 2002) which proves the important therapeutic implication of lentisk oil and a pertinent role on wound repair (Cardoso et al., 2004).…”