Acta Vet. Brno 2013, 82: 283-288
Assessment of oils of selected legumes and oil plants with regard to animal nutrition
The aim of our study was to compare nutritional quality of oils of legumes (soybean, pea, faba bean and lupin) and oil plants (rape, sunflower, poppy and flax) grown in the Czech Republic. Individual seeds of legumes and oil seeds were analysed for fat content and fatty acid profile. Fatty acids were detected by gas chromatography, following fat extraction. The fatty acid profile was evaluated for contents of fatty acids saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, n-3 and n-6 fatty acids. The highest proportion of fat in the dry matter of seed was found in poppy, followed by sunflower, flax, rape, soybean, lupin, pea, and faba bean. Differences in fat contents between individual plants were highly significant (P ≤ 0.01), except for differences between flax and rape (P ≤ 0.05), pea and faba bean and poppy and sunflower (non-significant). Apart from rapeseed, markedly higher proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids were found in other oils but rapeseed had the least content of saturated fatty acids. Legumes had a favourable ratio of n-3:n-6 fatty acids, especially lupin oil (1:4.3), which is in accordance with the recommended ratio 1:5. Sunflower oil is less suitable, with n-3 present in trace concentration. The most significant source of n-3 is flaxseed oil. The study brings new findings regarding oil composition in a wide range of feed components. These data may be used for development of diets for specific purposes and for production of functional food.
Keywords
Fat content, fatty acid, PUFA, n-3, n-6, n-9.
