Morama bean fatty acids

The principal components of oils and fats on which all the physical and chemical properties depend are the TAG molecules. The TAGs are in turn made up of a variety of fatty acids esterified to the hydroxyl groups on glycerol molecules. TAG profiles of morama bean oil has been carried out by Mitei et ah (2008) who found seven major TAG classes, with the dominating classes being C54 4, C54 3, and C52 3. Occupancy of the sn-1 and sn-3 positions is 45.0% saturated, 38.4% oleoyl, and 16.6% linoleoyl. The sn-2 position is occupied by oleoyl (56.4%) and linoleoyl (43.6%). 

The lipid of morama beans is mainly ( 75%) unsaturated fatty acids, with the principal fatty acid being oleic acid (43%). The beans furthermore contain linoleic (22%) and palmitic acid (13%) as well as stearic, arachidic, linolenic, arachidonic, erucic, behenic, myristic, palmitoleic, and gadoleic acid in lower concentrations (Bousquet, 1982 Bower et ah, 1988 Engelter and Wehmeyer, 1970 Francis and Campbell, 2003 Ketshajwang et ah, 1998 Mitei et ah, 2008). The fatty acid composition resembles that of olive oil (Mitei et ah, 2008). A literature review of the fatty acid composition of morama beans is given in Table 5.3. Less than 5% of the fatty acids are present as free acids (Bower et ah, 1988 Dubois et ah, 1995), which means that the activity of lipases is negligible in dry morama beans. 

TABLE 5.3 Fatty acid composition (% of total fatty acids) of the morama bean reported as mean SD... 

The major fatty adds in the morama bean are in bold. The last column gives the average fatty acid composition (normalized to 100%). 

While an analysis of individual components in morama beans (above) can give a good lead to their possible beneficial and negative effects, it is the sum total, antagonistic or synergistic effects of the various component combinations which determine their overall effect on health. It is the high content of amino acids, and some fatty acids, complemented with minor... 

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