Determination of fatty acid compositions of some important almond (Prunus amygdalus L.) varieties selected from Tokat province and Eagean region of Turkey

This study was conducted to determine the fatty acid composition of Picantili, Ferraduel, Drake and Nonpareil commercial almond species (Prunus amygdalus L.) cultivated in Tokat province under dry conditions; of genotype ST-11 and YD-2 selected from Tokat region; and of 101-13, 300-1, 17-4 sweet almond species, selected from the Aegean region. The percentage and composition of the fatty acids of the samples were determined by gas chromatography. The amounts of oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid, respectively, were found to be higher than the other fatty acids in all genotypes. These fatty acids were similar in amounts and little change was observed between the genotypes. These values were determined to range from 57.46 to 68.65%, 11.77 to 25.15%, 5.06 to 7.26% and 1.26 to 2.41%, respectively. However, genotype 17-4 included more docosaheaenoic acid (DHA), pentadecanoic and nervonic acids than the other genotypes. According to these results, it can be suggested that the fatty acid composition of genotypes were not changed very significantly although there are some differences between samples as percentage. Genotype 17-4 is more heavily affected by dry climatic conditions than other genotypes. © 2011 Academic Journals.