Determination of fatty acid composition of halophyte plant (Suaeda vermiculata) collected from the shorelines of Persian Gulf region (Bushehr Province)

This study was carried out to determine the oil content and of fatty acids in stem, leave and seed of halophyte plant (Suaeda vermiculata) locally called “Tahma” growing along the shorelines of the Persian Gulf in Bushehr Province. The total oil and fatty acid contents of leaves, stem and root were extracted in n-hexane using Soxhlet and the fatty acid compositions were determined by FID- Gas chromatography. The amount of oil content ranged from 0.68 to 1.74% by dry weight. The lowest present was for in stem and the highest for leave respectively. A total of 11 fatty acids were detected in leave, stem and root of which 8 were saturated and 3 unsaturated. The major saturated fatty acid in leave and stem was palmitic but in the seed was margaric acid. Also, the major unsaturated fatty acids in leave, seed and stem were oleic, linoleic and linolenic respectively. Our results also showed the presence of fatty acids such as plargonic, palmitic and stearic in all of the above organs, which the plargonic was dominant in leave but palmitic, linoleic and stearic in stem. Analysis of results showed that in the seeds of S. vermiculata the major saturated fatty acid is margaric and the major unsaturated fatty acid is linoleic. Also it was shown that the amount of saturated fatty acids in the seed were more than unsaturated fatty acids.