Fatty acid composition of oleaster pulp and pit oils

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.