Fatty acid composition of the seed lipids of Chamaerops humilis L. natural populations and its relation with the environment

Seed lipids composition is a tool to discriminate among plant taxa and is related to phylogeny and biogeographic distribution. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the fatty acid (FA) composition of the seed lipids from nine natural Chamaerops humilis L. population and its relation with the climatic traits of the collection sites. The average seed lipids content was 54.8 g kg21 and the most represented FAs were oleic (478 g kg21 oil) and linoleic (230 g kg21 oil), with significant differences among the accessions. Most of the lipid traits significantly correlated with climatic traits. In particular, oleic acid negatively correlated with year potential evapotranspiration. These relations could emerge from a genotypic adaptation to the environment. The seed of C. humilis showed high content of lipids, which implies an importance of the species for feeding wild life during winter, and a high degree of unsaturation. Considering the importance of the unsaturated FAs in human and animal nutrition, the present results suggest that European fan palm could be introduced in breeding programmes and its seed extract used as FA in diet supplementation. Further studies are needed to identify the content of anti-nutritional or nutraceutical compounds.