Acorn (Quercus spp.) as a novel source of oleic acid and tocopherols for livestock and humans: discrimination of selected species from Mediterranean forest.

The aim of the present work was to characterization and compare acorns from selected Quercus spp. from the Mediterranean forest in Spain, namely, Portuguese oak (QF, Quercus faginea Lam.), Cork oak (QS, Quercus suber L.), Pyrenean oak (QP, Quercus pyrenaica Wild), Kermes oak (QC, Quercus coccifera L.), Holm oak (QB, Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota [Desf.]). All physicochemical attributes varied significantly between species. Fat contents ranged from 1.30 to 4.70 g 100 g-1 fresh matter. The most abundant fatty acids were oleic (62.44, 56.25, 57.46, 48.02, 65.83%), followed by linoleic (16.42, 20.73, 21.30, 25.38, 14.17%) and palmitic (11.69, 14.27, 12.17, 16.22, 12.28) acids in QF, QS, QP, QC and QB species, respectively. The tocopherol content was high in the range of 31.83-45.25 mg kg-1, and γ-tocopherol constituted 67-78% of total tocopherols. Only an effect of the location on γ-tocopherol content in QB was observed. The present results show the potential of different species of acorn to be used as agricultural and food resources and that geographical location plays a secondary role.