Chemical Composition of the Unconventional Oil Extracted from Zizyphus lotus Almonds

The present study aims to evaluate the chemical composition of fatty acids, sterols, and tocopherols of unconventional vegetable oil extracted by maceration with hexane from the Zizyphus lotus almonds. The fruit of the Zizyphus lotus was collected during the month of September 2016 in the Khouribga region of Morocco. The extraction yield is of the order of 24%. Analysis of GC chromatograms shows that the oil consists of more than 80.5% unsaturated fatty acids or oleic acid (C18: 1, 66.28%) represent the major fatty acid, followed by the acid linoleic (C18: 2, 13.94%). GC analysis of the unsaponifiable fraction reveals the presence of β-sitosterol with a significant percentage of approximately 71.05% and the HPLC chromatogram analysis of tocopherols shows the presence of γ-tocopherol and ?-tocopherol respectively with a rate of 93.93 and 6.07% for a total tocopherol content of 97.3 mg/kg.