Determination of triacylglycerols and fatty acid composition of momordica cochinchinensis seed oil and some other plants of this genus

The oils of Momordica cochinchinensis seeds were collected in 15 regions of Vietnam and studied by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Two detectors were used in the work - diode-array detector and mass spectrometric detector with mixed ionization: chemical ionization at atmospheric pressure and ionization by electrospray. It was found that triacylglycerols (TAG) of all oils contain substituents of one dominant acid - α-eleostearic acid, mole fraction of the acid between fatty acid substituents was 58.1-72.4%, thus the seeds of the plant are a valuable raw material for the production of pharmacologically important oil. It was found that the three types of seed oils of Momordica genus (M. charantia, M. cochinchinensis, and M. subangulata) belong to the same type of oil while the seed oil of another species of the genus M. balsamina is characterized by simultaneous biosynthesis of two conjugated octadecatrienoic acids: α-eleostearic and punic. To evaluate the specificity of the TAG types biosynthesis is proposed the parameter of the ration of the experimental and theoretically possible (with equal probability of occupation of different positions in glycerol moiety by acid substituents) TAG mole fractions. It was found that the main oil TAG, di-α-eleostearate-stearate) is synthesized with high specificity. © 2019 Altai State University. All rights reserved.