Oleic acid content in cow's milk and vegetable oils on Serbian market

Abstract

Oleic acid (OA) has many beneficial effects on human health. One of the main dietary sources of OA is olive oil. Non-Mediterranean European countries, including Serbia, have low habitual olive oil consumption, but other vegetable oils, milk and diary products also contain different amounts of OA. Content of oleic and other fatty acids (FA) could markedly vary in the same foods, depending on the region. Thus the aim of this study was to determine proportion of OA in cow's milk and in eight vegetable oils available on Serbian market. FA composition of milk and vegetable oils was determined by gas chromatography. Eight vegetable oils: processed and cold pressed sunflower oil, olive oil, rapeseed oil, pumpkin seed oil, grape seed oil, linseed oil, and light sesame oil, and 5 samples of cow's milk with different fat percentages (0.5-3.5%) were analyzed. OA was found in all investigated vegetable oils in different proportions. Olive oil and rapeseed oil are main sources of oleic acid (67.0±0.4% and 64.3±0.5% of total FA, respectively), which is the least present in grape seed oil and linseed oil (18.1±0.2% and 18.7±0.1%, respectively). Pumpkin seed oil is also rich in OA (45.7±0.4%). Furthermore, significant amounts of OA were found in cow's milk (22.94-25.57% of total FA). In summary, olive oil, rapeseed oil and pumpkin seed oil are good vegetable sources of oleic acid, while cow's milk also contains considerable amounts of this FA. Regarding beneficial effects of OA, its increased consumption would lead to improvement of overall health.