Triacylglycerols Profiles Established by UHPLC-ESI-MS in Developing Sweet, Semi-sweet and Bitter Seeds from Tunisian Oilseeds Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.).

The aim of the present research is to investigate the effect of three harvest date on the composition of apricot seed. Indeed, triacylglycerols (TAGs) content and composition were studied in developing Tunisian apricot varieties bitter (Bargoug), semi-sweet (Oud Rhayem) and sweet (Chechi Bazza) cultivars at intervals of early (14 DAP), mid phase (28 DAP) and full phase (55 DAP) of oil accumulation by UHPLC-ESI-MS method. Eleven molecular species of triacylglycerols were detected and identified as LLL, LLO, LLP, LOO, LLS/LOP, LPP, OOO, LOS, OOP, POP and OOS. At 14 DAP, LLO was the major TAGs molecular species with 35.4-52.6% (maximum reached in semi-sweet apricot). Others major TAGs were founded at lower content as LOO (17.5-40.3%) and OOO (5.7-12.7%). However, among maturity, three distinct profiles of TAGs molecular species were observed: bitter apricot was significantly richer in OOO molecular species than cultivars ones. However, semi-sweet and sweet cultivars were richer in LLO and LOO molecular species at different time-dates. These latter may provide a schedule for harvesting Tunisian apricot seeds with high quality of oil content.

Screening of Glycerophospholipids Molecular Species Contents in Three North African Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Seed Varieties.

In the present work, a high-performance liquid chromatographic method coupled with mass spectrometry (HILIC-HPLC /ESI-MS) was used for the characterization and the quantification of glycerophospholipids (GPLs) classes and their molecular species in three genetically different Tunisian apricot cultivars (bitter, sweet and semi-sweet apricots). The application of the proposed method to the analysis of apricot oil allowed to separate and identify 74 molecular species of GPLs. Phosphatidylcholine (PC) class was found to be the most abundant GLPs in the three seed oils (38.6-62.4%) especially in bitter apricot, followed by phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) classes with values of 8.3-38.9% and 1.7-25.4% respectively. Phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) compounds were minor ones with maximums of 11.3%, 9.8% and 9.2% respectively. The results we obtained for the three Tunisian apricot seed varieties clearly indicate that the phospholipids of Tunisian apricot are of great interest. In fact, the high content of phosphatidylcholine (PC) determines it as a suitable and valuable source for obtaining corresponding phospholipids concentrates.