Occurrence of cholesterol as a major sterol component in leaf surface lipids

Cholesterol has been detected as one of the major sterols in the surface lipids of higher plant leaves. It was widely distributed among the plant leaves of various species as a common main sterol component with a few exceptions. The content of cholesterol amounted to 71.5% of the total sterols in the surface lipids of rape leaves. However, the proportion of cholesterol in the intracellular lipids of rape leaves was lower than that in the surface lipids, and the seed lipids contained only a trace amount of cholesterol, as reported in the literature. In the leaf surface lipids examined, a minor amount of cholestanol associated with cholesterol often was detected by capillary gas chromatography and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry. The related analysis for the surface lipids of fruits showed that cholesterol was one of the major component sterols also in those lipids of several species.