Influence of climate, varieties and production process on tocopherols, plastochromanol-8 and pigments in flaxseed oil Influence of climate, varieties and production on antioxidants in flaxseed oil

The objective of this study was to compare the influence of: genotype, environmental conditions and processing methods on levels of tocochromanols carotenoids and chlorophyll after maturation and harvesting in flaxseed oil from four varieties (Altess, Biltstar, Niagara and Oliwin). Oils were produced by cold pressing of dry seeds and seeds that were heated for 30 min at 60 °C. Temperature, sunshine and rainfall were primary environmental conditions included. Grand mean for γ-tocopherol was (522±29) mg/kg of oil, for plastochromanol-8 was (305±2) mg/kg of oil and total tocochromanols (831±3) mg/kg of oil. The highest levels and strongest antioxidant activity were found with cold pressed oil from variety Biltstar. Levels of γ-tocopherol and plastochromanol-8, increased with average temperature and total sunshine during seed maturation and decreased with total rainfall during seed maturation. Fifth week after flowering was identified as maturation period with best climate conditions to achieve optimal tocochromanol content. Grand mean for carotenoids was (1.83±0.01) mg/kg of oil, and chlorophyll (0.43±0.10) mg/kg of oil. Variety Altess had the highest levels of pigments. Antioxidant activity decreased with increase of chlorophyll, while correlations with