Comparative analysis of seed oil characteristics in contrasting chickpea cultivars

The fatty acid profiling in chickpea remains unexplored and offers relevant knowledge for crop improvement program. In the present work, the metabolite approach has been utilized with mass spectral analysis to metabolite changes in twelve varieties of kabuli as well as desi cultivars (twenty four totals) for fatty acid profiling. The total oil was extracted and found to be higher in all cultivars of kabuli chickpea (3.6–5.3%) as compared to all desi chickpea (3.2–4.6%) cultivars. However, no difference in the refractive indices of desi (1.4755–1.4773) and kabuli (1.4739–1.476) cultivars has been observed. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were reported to be predominant (kabuli; 50–68.6%, desi; 61.5–72.5%) and monounsaturated (MUFA) (kabuli; 19.9–38.4%, desi; 16.7–26.4%) and saturated fatty acids (SFA) (kabuli; 11–14.9%, desi; 10–11.9%) were relatively low in the oil of all selected cultivars. Among fatty acids, linoleic acid (C18:2), followed by oleic acid (C18:1), was most prevalent in all selected chickpea cultivars. The volatile organic compounds, 9,12-octadecadienoic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid, and hexadecanoic acid have also been detected comparatively high. Similarly, oil contents also detected terpenoids including b-tocopherol, fucosterol, stigmasterol, and stigmata-5, 22-dien-3-ol. This work could offer comprehensive understanding of fatty acid composition in chickpea that could be used further for crop improvement to assess their nutritional importance in human diet and help to draft strategy for improving self-life during storage of flour of chickpea. This key insight of this work could be further harness to identify potential biochemical biomarkers for improving fatty acid content in chickpea seeds for crop improvement.