Abstract
Cottonseed oil ranks third in the world after soybean and rapeseed oil in terms of oilseed raw material production and contributes significantly to dietary diversity. The quality, oxidation stability and biological effectiveness of vegetable oil depend on its fatty acid composition. Oil oxidation stability is important for oil producers and retailers as it prolongs the product shelf life. The aim of the research was to assess the fatty acid content of cottonseed oil of the species Gossypium hirsutum, G. herbaceum, G. Barbadense grown in the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts of the Russian Federation in relation to the place of cultivation and belonging to the species. The task was to describe the interdependencies of the oil quality components, to rank the factors determining the dispersion of variables, to assess the quality traits by factor loadings. Fatty acids (FA) were studied using gas-liquid chromatography. It was established that the cottonseed oil was characterized by a high content of linoleic (40.94 %), oleic (33.49 %), as well as palmitic (14.76 %) and stearic FA (6.03 %). The content of other acids was less than 1.2 %. The influence of the growing area on the content of linoleic and oleic acids was weak. The highest factor loadings for the main factor 1 (44.6 % of variance) were carried by arachidic (-0.89), heptadecenoic (-0.87), palmitoleic (-0.85), behenic (-0.85), margaric (-0.80), palmitic (-0.78), myristic and eicosadienoic acids (each by -0.76). Factor loadings of the cotton species traits and its cultivation zone were minimal. Despite the percentage predominance of linoleic, oleic, palmitic and stearic acids, significant factor loadings (-0.89…-0.78) were identified for minor acids playing an important role in the metabolic formation of oil quality, the biogenesis of which is functionally associated with the accumulation of oleic and linoleic acids characteristic of the oil.