Acer triflorum as a new nervonic acid-containing oilseed resource for the future: Fruit-and-seed weight, oil content and fatty acid composition

To develop and utilize the oil of Acer triflorum and explore natural resources rich in nervonic acid, 20 individual plants were used in trial collections to determine the oil and fatty acid contents of their seeds. The results showed that the average oil content ranged from 28.83%− 48.52%, with an average of 36.31%, indicating the plant is potential as a new species with high seed oil content. The oil was mainly composed of two saturated fatty acids (palmitic acid, stearic acid) and six unsaturated fatty acids (oleic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, erucic acid, nervonic acid). The average total content of the unsaturated fatty acids was 91.98%, where linoleic acid was 44.95%, erucic acid was 12.47%, and nervonic acid was 4.69%, indicating that A. triflorum seed oil has stable and high unsaturation characteristics and high nutritional value. The coefficients of variation (CV) for13 seed oil traits ranged from 0.47% to 12.40%, among which the CV for the oil content was the highest (12.40%), the CV for the total unsaturated fatty acids content was the lowest (0.47%), the CV for erucic acid was 2.54%, and that of nervonic acid was 6.37%. These results suggest that A. triflorum has potential as a new plant with a high content of valuable fatty oils. Meanwhile, extremely significant differences in the oil content and fatty acids content in the kernels of A. triflorum were observed among individuals, which provided the basis for screening germplasm resources for high oil, high nervonic acid and low erucic acid contents. Correlation analysis showed that the fuller the fruit and seed, the higher the oil content and seed oil quality. Based on the characteristics of the various fruit-and-seed weights and seed oils, one plant exemplifying excellent "high oil and low erucic acid" (‘WN181′) characteristics and another plant exemplifying excellent "high oil and nervonic acid" (‘GGC260′) characteristics were selected preliminarily. This study showed that A. triflorum could be developed into a renewable woody oil species, and its seeds could be used as raw materials for extracting nervonic acid.