Chemical Evaluation of Oil Extracted from Chia Seed (Salvia hispanica L.)

Oils and fats play important roles in human nutrition. Due to its special and important compounds, chia oil might be employed in food and pharmaceutical industries. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the chemical properties of the oil extracted from chia seed.
Three different varieties of chia seeds were obtained from local market and subjected to cold solvent extraction. The extracted oils were subjected to a series of chemical tests consisting of the determination of fatty acids composition, iodine and saponification values, identification and quantification of fractions present in the nonsaponifiable matter and measurement of phosphorus and phospholipid concentration.
The results indicated that the seeds contained approximately 31-34% oil. Linolenic acid was the predominant fatty acid present (66%) followed by linoleic, palmitic, oleic and stearic acids in respective decreasing order. Beta-sitosterol and gama-tochopherol were the predominant sterol and tochopherol present.
Chia seed has become increasingly important for human health and nutrition because of its high content of -linolenic acid. Although the oil might be susceptible to oxidative rancidity due to high content to linolenic acid, however it might be employed in food and pharmaceutical industries.