Oil Composition of Iranian Major Nuts

Iran annually exports considerable quantities of nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and walnuts. The fatty acid profile of these nut oils as an index of their quality was determined using gas chromatography. Results indicated that oleic acid (C18:1) was the major fatty acid in almonds (75.37%), hazelnuts (76.21%) and pistachios (60.49%) followed by linoleic acid (C18:2), whereas in walnuts, the main fatty acid was linoleic acid (49.84%) followed by oleic acid. However, in all cases palmitic acid (C16:0) was detected at a much lower level than those of oleic and linoleic acid (7.26, 5.29, 7.20, 9.23%, respectively).