Abstract
Millet is one of the most important cereals in the world regarding its domestic and commercial utilization. In spite of the extensive production of numerous millet species as main staple food grain in many developing countries in Africa and Asia, little information is available on pearl millet oil in terms of its composition of bioactive lipophilic and phenolic compounds. The aim of the present study was to describe the importance of pearl millet seeds by extracting their oil and determining its composition regarding lipids, carotenoids and phenolic compounds, and its antioxidant potential. The content of total lipids in pearl millet seeds was 5.1%, similar to that in maize grain. Several fatty acids were detected; the major fatty acid was linoleic acid (47.5%). The content of total unsaturated fatty acids in pearl millet oil was 77.2%. Pearl millet oil was rich in omega-6 (ω-6) fatty acids and it can be considered a highly unsaturated oil. This oil also has a high total phenolic content (220 mg/100 g) and antioxidant activity (79.2%). Two flavonoids (quercetin: 1.7 μg/g and catechin: 1.2 μg/g) were found in pearl millet, which are commonly recorded in other species such as sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa. The results showed remarkably high levels of carotenoids in pearl millet (10.2 mg/kg) compared to other millet species. Pearl millet seeds may be used in future to create a new source of edible oil due to the presence of several unsaturated and essential fatty acids. Furthermore, foods manufactured from pearl millet flour will have a high content of phenolic compounds and carotenoids as well as antioxidant activity, which support human health.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aboagarib EAA, Yang R, Hua X, Siddeeg A (2014) Chemical compositions, nutritional properties and volatile compounds of Guddaim (Grewia Tenax. Forssk) Fiori fruits. J Food Nutr Res 2:187–192. https://doi.org/10.12691/jfnr-2-4-9
Agrawal H, Joshi R, Gupta M (2016) Isolation, purification and characterization of antioxidative peptide of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) protein hydrolysate. Food Chem 204:365–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2016.02.127
Ahmad F, Pasha I, Saeed M, Asgher M (2018) Biochemical profiling of Pakistani sorghum and millet varieties with special reference to anthocyanins and condensed tannins. Int J Food Prop 21(1):1586–1597
Annor GA, Marcone M, Corredig M, Bertoft E, Seetharaman K (2015) Effects of the amount and type of fatty acids present in millets on their in vitro starch digestibility and expected glycemic index (eGI). J Cereal Sci 64:76–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2015.05.004
Aronson WJ, Glaspy JA, Reddy ST, Reese D, Heber D, Bagga D (2001) Modulation of omega-3/omega-6 polyunsaturated ratios with dietary fish oils in men with prostate cancer. Urology 58:283–288
Asiedu M, Nilsen R, Lie Ø, Lied E (1993) Effect of processing (sprouting and/or fermentation) on sorghum and maize. I: Proximate composition, minerals and fatty acids. Food Chem 46:351–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/0308-8146(93)90003-X
Baba SA, Malik SA (2015) Determination of total phenolic and flavonoid content, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of a root extract of Arisaema jacquemontii Blume. J Taibah Univ Sci 9:449–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtusci.2014.11.001
Baranowski JD, Davidson PM, Nagel CW, Branen AL (1980) Inhibition of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by naturally occuring hydroxycinnamates. J Food Sci 45:592–594. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1980.tb04107.x
Barros A, Freire I, Goncalves B, Bacela E, Gomes S, Lopes J, Guedes-Pinto H, Martins-Lopes P (2012) Evaluation of chemical and phenotypic changes in Blanqueta Cobrançosa and Galega during ripening. CYTA J Food 11:136–141
Benatti P, Peluso G, Nicolai R, Calvani M (2004) Polyunsaturated fatty acids: biochemical, nutritional and epigenetic properties. J Am Coll Nutr 23:281–302
Catarino MD, Silva AMS, Saraiva SC, Sobral AJFN, Cardoso SM (2018) Characterization of phenolic constituents and evaluation of antioxidant properties of leaves and stems of Eriocephalus africanus. Arab J Chem 11:62–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2015.04.018
Choi Y, Jeong H-S, Lee J (2007) Antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts from some grains consumed in Korea. Food Chem 103:130–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2006.08.004
De Ancos B, Sgroppo S, Plaza L, Cano MP (2002) Possible nutritional and health-related value promotion in orange juice preserved by high-pressure treatment. J Sci Food Agric 82:790–796. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.1093
Dutta D, Chaudhuri UR, Chakraborty R (2005) Structure, health benefits, antioxidant property and processing and storage of carotenoids. Afr J Biotechnol 4:1510–1520
Dykes L, Rooney LW (2006) Sorghum and millet phenols and antioxidants. J Cereal Sci 44:236–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2006.06.007
Elyas SHA, El Tinay AH, Yousif NE, Elsheikh EAE (2002) Effect of natural fermentation on nutritive value and in vitro protein digestibility of pearl millet. Food Chem 78:75–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0308-8146(01)00386-7
Falcinelli B, Calzuola I, Gigliarelli L, Torricelli R, Polegri L, Vizioli V, Benincasa P, Marsili V (2018) Phenolic content and antioxidant activity of wholegrain breads from modern and old wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars and ancestors enriched with wheat sprout powder. Ital J Agron 5:297–302. https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2018.1220
Friedman M (1997) Chemistry, biochemistry, and dietary role of potato polyphenols. A review. J Agric Food Chem 45:1523–1540. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf960900s
Heim KE, Tagliaferro AR, Bobilya DJ (2002) Flavonoid antioxidants: chemistry, metabolism and structure-activity relationships. J Nutr Biochem 13:572–584
Kim W, Khan NA, McMurray DN et al (2010) Regulatory activity of polyunsaturated fatty acids in T-cell signaling. Prog Lipid Res 49:250–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plipres.2010.01.002
Krishnan R, Meera MS (2018) Pearl millet minerals: effect of processing on bioaccessibility. J Food Sci Technol 55:3362–3372. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-018-3305-9
Kritchevsky D, Sundram K (2002) Palm oil in human nutrition: recent advances. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 11(Suppl 7):S393
Liu RH (2007) Whole grain phytochemicals and health. J Cereal Sci 46:207–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2007.06.010
Lü Z, Zhang Z, Wu H, Zhou Z, Yu J (2016) Phenolic composition and antioxidant capacities of chinese local pummelo cultivars’ peel. Hortic Plant J 2:133–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hpj.2016.05.001
Madhujith T, Shahidi F (2007) Antioxidative and antiproliferative properties of selected barley (Hordeum vulgarae L.) cultivars and their potential for inhibition of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol oxidation. J Agric Food Chem 55:5018–5024. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf070072a
Mehmood S, Orhan I, Ahsan Z et al (2008) Fatty acid composition of seed oil of different Sorghum bicolor varieties. Food Chem 109:855–859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2008.01.014
Morrison WR (1977) Cereal lipids. Proc Nutr Soc 36:143–148
Msaada K, Jemia MB, Salem N, Bachrouch O, Sriti J, Tammar S, Bettaieb I, Jabri I, Kefi S, Limam F, Marzouk B (2017) Antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts from three coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) fruit varieties. Arab J Chem 10:S3176–S3183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2013.12.011
Nakbi A, Issaoui M, Dabbou S, Koubaa N, Echbili A, Hammami M, Attia N (2010) Evaluation of antioxidant activities of phenolic compounds from two extra virgin olive oils. J Food Compos Anal 23:711–715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2010.05.003
Parada J, Aguilera JM (2007) Food microstructure affects the bioavailability of several nutrients. J Food Sci 72:R21–R32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2007.00274.x
Pavithra K, Vadivukkarasi S (2015) Evaluation of free radical scavenging activity of various extracts of leaves from Kedrostis foetidissima (Jacq.) Cogn. Food Sci Hum Wellness 4:42–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fshw.2015.02.001
Petrović M, Kezić N, Bolanča V (2010) Optimization of the GC method for routine analysis of the fatty acid profile in several food samples. Food Chem 122:285–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.02.018
Queiroz VAV, da Silva CS, de Menezes CB et al (2015) Nutritional composition of sorghum [sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] genotypes cultivated without and with water stress. J Cereal Sci 65:103–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2015.06.018
Radhouane L (2008) Autochthonous pearl millet ecotype (Pennisetum glaucum L. R.BR.) response to different sowing dates in Tunisia. Sjemenarstvo 25:123–138
Rani S, Singh R, Sehrawat R et al (2018) Pearl millet processing: a review. Nutr Food Sci 48:30–44
Schaefer EJ (2002) Lipoproteins, nutrition, and heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 75:191–212
Shen R, Yang S, Zhao G, Shen Q, Diao X (2015) Identification of carotenoids in foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and the effects of cooking methods on carotenoid content. J Cereal Sci 61:86–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2014.10.009
Sicari V (2017) Antioxidant potential of extra virgin olive oils extracted from three different varieties cultivated in the Italian province of Reggio Calabria. J Appl Bot Food Qual 90:76–82. https://doi.org/10.5073/JABFQ.2017.090.011
Song L, Wang X, Zheng X, Huang D (2011) Polyphenolic antioxidant profiles of yellow camellia. Food Chem 129:351–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.04.083
Sousa C, Gouvinhas I, Barreira D, Carvalho MT, Vilela A, Lopes J, Martins-Lopes P, Barros AI (2014) ‘Cobrançosa’ olive oil and drupe: chemical composition at two ripening stages. J Am Oil Chem Soc 91:599–611. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-013-2406-x
Srivastava U, Saini P, Singh A (2018) Effect of Natural Fermentation on Antioxidant Activity of Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum). Curr Nutr Food Sci. https://doi.org/10.2174/1573401314666181115103328, http://www.eurekaselect.com/167398/article. Accessed 7 Jul 2019 (e-pub ahead of print)
Steiner-Asiedu M, Julshamn K, Lie Ø (1991) Effect of local processing methods (cooking, frying and smoking) on three fish species from Ghana: Part I. Proximate composition, fatty acids, minerals, trace elements and vitamins. Food Chem 40:309–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/0308-8146(91)90115-5
Taylor JRN, Schober TJ, Bean SR (2006) Novel food and non-food uses for sorghum and millets. J Cereal Sci 44:252–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2006.06.009
Taylor JRN, John RN, Belton PS, Beta T, Duodu KG (2014) Increasing the utilisation of sorghum, millets and pseudocereals: developments in the science of their phenolic phytochemicals, biofortification and protein functionality. J Cereal Sci 59:257–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2013.10.009
Yaqoob P (2002) Monounsaturated fatty acids and immune function. Eur J Clin Nutr 56:S9
Zhang LZ, Liu RH (2015) Phenolic and carotenoid profiles and antiproliferative activity of foxtail millet. Food Chem 174:495–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.09.089
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the laboratory of plant physiology and biotechnology of the National Institute of Tunis Agronomic research, and the Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Cellular Physiopathology and Biomolecules Valorisation LR18ES03, University of Tunis El Manar, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Tunisia.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Slama, A., Cherif, A., Sakouhi, F. et al. Fatty acids, phytochemical composition and antioxidant potential of pearl millet oil. J Consum Prot Food Saf 15, 145–151 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-019-01250-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-019-01250-4