Lipid Composition of Germinated and NonGerminated Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Found in Nasarawa State,

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an underutilized oil-bearing seed found in Nigeria. The fatty acid, phospholipids and phytosterols composition of germinated and non-germinated seed of Sorghum bicolor were evaluated using standard analytical techniques. The result showed that the most concentrated fatty acids (%) found in the geminated and non-germinated oils were linoleic acid (41.16, 59.45), oleic acid (33.80, 23.05), palmitic acid (18.20, 10.68) and stearic acid (2.35, 1.72). The fatty acids composition of the germinated and non-germinated oils contained a healthy mixture of all the types of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The polyunsaturated/saturated index (P/S) was 2.12 % and 3.82 % for germinated and non-germinated oils, respectively. The most prominent phospholipids (mg/100 g) found in the germinated seed oil was phosphatidylcholine (23.86) followed by phosphatidylethanolamine (9.22) and phosphatidylinositol (9.08) while the most prominent in the non-germinated seed oil was phosphatidylcholine (32.39) followed by phosphatidylethanolamine (13.03) and lysophosphatidylcholine (13.07). The high value of phosphatidylcholine showed that Sorghum bicolor may help in protecting the liver from disease and hepatitis. The total phytosterols for germinated and non-germinated were (45.93 mg/100 g and 56.69 mg/100 g), respectively. This suggests that Sorghum bicolor