Abstract

Roystonea regia (Kunth) F. Cook fruit is a good source of oil with possible application in the nutritional and pharmaceutical industries. The chemical constituent of the unsaponifiable matter of this oil, however, has not been studied yet. The aim of this work was to assess the content of sterols and alcohols in this fraction using GC-MS. Samples were submitted to basic hydrolysis with KOH/EtOH solution and then the unsaponifiable fractions extracted with n-hexane, and then alcohols and sterols were analyzed as trimethylsilylether derivatives using cholestane as the internal standard. The average content of the unsaponifiable matter of R. regia was 1.3%. The major fraction (66%), was composed of sterols, like ß-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, 24-methylencycloartanol, Δ5-avenasterol, cycloartanol and cycloartenol, while the fatty alcohol fraction (33.9%) contained C₁₈OH-C₃₄OH alcohols.

Key words: Roystonea regia, unsaponifiable fraction, GC-MS, sterols, fatty alcohols