Fatty Acids and Tocopherols From Seeds of Capparis Spinosa L. Collected from Qazvin

This study is carried out to detection and determination of fatty acids and tocopherols of oil caper (Capparis spinosa L.) seeds collected from Qazvin province in 2011. Seed oil was extracted by hexane in a soxhelt apparatus and the fatty acids were analyzed by GC-MS. The result showed the oil content of the seeds was 29.63% on a dry weight. Linoleic acid with 47.6% was the main fatty acid followed by Oleic acid (22.1%), Cis Oleic acid (16.9%) and palmitic acid (7.1%). Also 0.27% of the oil was related to sterols (2630 mg/kg of total extracted lipids) of which sitosterol, with 1633.2 mg/kg, was the most abundant (52.1%). C. spinosa seed oil also contains a high level of tocopherols (ca.4226.8 mg/100 g). G-Tocopherol was the major homologue (ca. 43.65%), followed by γ-tocopherol (ca. 29.9%). The results of this study indicated that caper seed has high oil and is rich in sterol and tocopherol that can be used for pharmaceutical, nutritional and industrial purpose.