Biochemical Characterization of Seed Oil of Tunisian Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Accessions with Special Reference to Its Fatty Acid Composition and Oil Content

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a major oilseed crop, cultivated throughout the world, and nutritional quality of its edible oil ranks among best vegetable oils in agricultural product. In Tunisia, there lack study on biochemical characterization sunflower germplasm oil. The present was conducted to analyze content fatty acid composition 22 local introduced accessions. Results revealed significant variation studied accessions for all measured traits. average H. annuus 53.2%, ranging from 35.33% 59.67%. results this also indicated that unsaturated acids, particularly oleic linoleic acid, were most abundant acids oils. Fatty compositions showed diversity depending accession. first two components principal component analysis (PCA) contributed 45.7% total variability. Cluster based PCA separated into four clear groups, which not grouped according their geographical origin. Moreover, classification evaluated using clustering by Euclidean distance main groups. Linoleic had negative correlations with some saturated (palmitic, stearic, arachidic acids). These data can be useful selecting development varieties improved quality.