Fatty acid composition and bioactive components of virgin <i>Camellia oleifera</i> oil of fourteen cultivars from representative production regions in China

In this study, both fatty acid composition and bioactive components in the virgin oils extracted from 14 Camellia oleifera cultivars from representative production regions in China were determined and compared for evaluating the comprehensive nutritional quality. The highest contents of linoleic acid, polyunsaturated fatty acids and unsaturated fatty acids were found in the oil of the cultivar Dabie Mountains, which was also named Lu’an camellia oil. In terms of bioactive components, the oil of the cultivar Xianglin had the highest content of β-sitosterol, squalene, total flavonoids, total triterpenes and tea saponin. Lu’an camellia oil had the highest α-tocopherol content and was also rich in other bioactive compounds. The principal component analysis demonstrated that the cultivars Xinshu, Dabie Mountains, and Changlin emerged as the top three candidates with the highest comprehensive scores for fatty acid composition, while the cultivars Xianglin, Dabie Mountains, and Daqingguo exhibited superior rankings in bioactive constituent evaluations.