Comparative Study of the Fatty Acid Profile of Different Gourd Seed Oils: Ash, Bottle and Ornamental Gourds

Certain components of fats and oils are among the required nutrient for human and animals, and these oils also serve as carriers of fat soluble vitamins. Therefore this paper seeks to study the fatty acid profile of three gourd family seed oils using standard methods. Samples of oil seed were extracted using soxhlet extractor and the oil was analysed for fatty acids using GC—Ms (Agent Technology Model). The result of the samples show the present of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The palmitic acid ranged between 15.94±0.03% - 35.59±0.02%, stearic acid: 10.56±0.1% - 11.28±0.02%, arachidic 0.11±0.02% --- 0.54±% with the presence of myristic acid in ash gourd only. The unsaturated acids indicated the presence of oleic acids ranged between 7.12±0,04% -- 18.95±0.02%, linoleic: 21.33±0.12% - - 60.99±0.02%, linolenic acid: 0.96±0.02% - 1.19±0.02%. Other compound observed were aldehyde aromatics, ketone and amine. Myristic acid was present in ash gourd and ornamental gourd seed oils but absent in bottle gourd seed oil. The margaric acid, lignoceric acid and behenic acid were absent in the all samples. In conclusion, fatty acid which are responsible for effective functions in human body and the observed results are comparable to common vegetable oils found in the market, such as olive oil, power oils.