Fatty acids characterization, oxidative perspectives and consumer acceptability of oil extracted from pre-treated chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seeds.

Background: Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seeds have been described as a good source of lipids, protein, dietary fiber, polyphenolic compounds and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The consumption of chia seed oil helps to improve biological markers related to metabolic syndrome diseases. The oil yield and fatty acids composition of chia oil is affected by several factors such as pre-treatment method and size reduction practices. Therefore, the main mandate of present investigate was to study the effect of different seed pre-treatments on yield, fatty acids composition and sensory acceptability of chia oil at different storage intervals and conditions.

Methods: Raw chia seeds were characterized for proximate composition. Raw chia seeds after milling were passed through sieves to obtain different particle size fractions (coarse, seed particle size ≥ 10 mm; medium, seed particle size ≥ 5 mm; fine, seed particle size ≤ 5 mm). Heat pre-treatment of chia seeds included the water boiling (100 C°, 5 min), microwave roasting (900 W, 2450 MHz, 2.5 min), oven drying (105 ± 5 °C, 1 h) and autoclaving (121 °C, 15 lbs, 15 min) process. Extracted oil from pre-treated chia seeds were stored in Tin cans at 25 ± 2 °C and 4 ± 1 °C for 60-days and examined for physical (color, melting point, refractive index), oxidative (iodine value, peroxide value, free fatty acids), fatty acids (palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, α-linolenic) composition and sensory (appearance, flavor, overall acceptability) parameters, respectively.

Results: The proximal composition of chia seeds consisted of 6.16 ± 0.24 % moisture, 34.84 ± 0.62 % oil, 18.21 ± 0.45 % protein, 4.16 ± 0.37 % ash, 23.12 ± 0.29 % fiber, and 14.18 ± 0.23 % nitrogen contents. The oil yield as a result of seed pre-treatments was found in the range of 3.43 ± 0.22 % (water boiled samples) to 32.18 ± 0.34 % (autoclaved samples). The oil samples at day 0 indicated the maximum color (R and Y Lovibond scale) value for oven drying while at storage day 60 (25 ± 2 °C), the highest color value was found for autoclave pre-treatment. The slightly increasing trend of color values for all treatments was observed during the storage period. The lowest iodine value (182.83 ± 1.18 g/100 g at storage day 0 & 173.49 ± 1.21 g/100 g at storage day 60, 25 ± 2 °C) was calculated for autoclaved samples while the maximum iodine value (193.42 ± 1.14 g/100 g at storage day 0 & 190.36 ± 1.17 g/100 g at storage day 60, 25 ± 2 °C) was recorded for raw chia samples. The significant increasing trend for all treatments was observed in case of peroxide value and free fatty acids production during storage. Maximum decrease in linoleic (35 %) and α-linolenic (18 %) fatty acids was observed in autoclaved samples. The oil from pre-treated seed samples obtained decreasing scores for sensory parameters throughout the storage period at different conditions.

Conclusions: As a result, chia seeds are an important source of lipids and essential fatty acids. The water boiling and high temperature processing of chia seeds provides instability to lipids during storage at room temperature. However, detailed investigation is required on the processing performance and storage stability of food products supplemented with pre-treated chia seeds and furthers their effect on biological system.