Physico-Chemical Properties, Composition and Oxidative Stability of Camelina sativa Oil

Camelina sativa is a cruciferous oilseed plant. With the aim of describing the general characteristics of the oil obtained from the seeds of plants grown in Slovenia and of comparing it to camelina oil from other countries we determined some physico-chemical properties, fatty acid composition, iodine and saponification value and followed its oxidative stability under different storage conditions. The density at 20 °C was (0.927 0.0001) g/cm3 and the refractive index reached 1.4756 0.0001 at 25 °C. The analysis of fatty acids showed 10.3 % of saturated and 55.8 % of polyunsaturated acids, with 16.9 % of linoleic (C18:2), 35.2 % of -linolenic (C18:33) and 1.6 % of erucic acid (C22:1). Determination of oxidative stability of this highly unsaturated oil revealed that the formation of primary oxidation products was affected by photooxidation. The peroxide value, PV, of fresh oil was (2.38 0.01) meq O2/kg, while after 1 month in daylight at room temperature PV reached (21.0 0.1) meq O2/kg. When stored in darkness PV was (8.12 0.08) meq O2/kg. In the fresh oil, the p-anisidine value, AV, was 6.2 0.1, after 11 months at room temperature 10.4 0.1, and after the same time at 8 °C in darkness 7.1 0.1. Susceptibility to oxidation of camelina oil was measured by the Rancimat test and expressed as the induction period. In fresh camelina oil the induction period was 4.8 h