study of un-saturated fatty acids content in ocimum basilicum l.

background & aim: ocimum basilicum l. is belong to the lamiaceae family which is cultivated as a culinary, industrial and medicinal plants in some countries from thousands years ago. the seed of this plant is rich in poly un-saturated fatty acids (pufa) and produced a large amount of mucilage. experimental: the oil of seed was extracted separately and converted to fatty acids methyl esters, and composition of fatty acids in seed oil was determined by gas chromatography. results & discussion: the results show that the highest content of total fat between (a.w.l.p.), (28.98 % of dw) in ardabil (l.p.) and lowest (17.25 % of dw) in a.g.2 (w.p.). the highest palmitic acid content is between (a.w.l.p.), (34.81 mol %) in kermanshah (l.p.) and lowest (2.05 mol %) is in kerman (l.p.). the highest stearic acid content is between (a.w.l.p.), (7.56 mol %) in ahwaz (l.p.) and lowest (1.42 mol %) in ardabil (w.p.). the highest of oleic acid between (a.w.l.p.), (22.81 mol %) in ghom (l.p.) and lowest (11.10 mol %) in a.g.2 (w.p.). the highest linoleic acid content between (a.w.l.p.), (25.60 mol %) in a.g.1 (l.p.) and lowest (15.55 mol %) in kermanshah (l.p.). the highest amount of linolenic acid between (a.w.l.p.), (53.89 mol %) in a.g.1 (w.p.) and lowest (28.08 mol %) in kermanshah (l.p.). the results also definite clearly that the seed of o. basilicum populations have large amount of un-saturated fatty acids, mucilage and they have a few amount of saturated fatty acids.